updates at 10.

The Move Again.

2012-01-21T04:04:00.000-08:00

'Lo all.

So, exciting developments. I have a new address. I now live in a nice little shoebox a couple of blocks down the road from my old place. It's cosy, I suppose.

This week has been slow, but fairly busy. Lots of trips up and down Glenferrie rd to bring more boxes of crap in. I'm 90% moved in, which is good. Major thanks to Simon for running most of the bigger things up in his van.

Tuesday night Annie, Bernice and I hit Nevs, which was alright. Ran into Amy on her birthday, which was nice. Then last night, introduced Dayno and George to the Astor, which seems to have blown them away. Caught the first Back to the Future (still good) and Jurassic Park (WOOOAAAAHHHH this film NEEDS to be seen on the big screen with a kickarse sound system). Then a mad dash into the city, we went out separate ways, and I walked in on a game of shot chess between Bec and her debater friends.

Rocked up too late for the party, but it was cool just to chill and get hammered. Didn't sleep particularly well. Better than the last visit though. And there was no confusion about cubes and spheres this time.

This morning I crawled out onto a tram, then train, then another train and a tram. Mmmrr. Still. New place is pretty much set up, just need a turntable and a bathmat. And a new lightbulb, since one of the lights in the ceiling is completely missing. Plus I have to move the old desktop in and sort out internet, I'm posting this from the phone internet which has not been particularly friendly. In fact, the phone coverage here is double butt. No good at all.

Tonight I had a few drinks in St Kilda with Emily and Tom, and had a long walk on the beach. Far, far too many syringe jokes.

Tomorrow is sleep, then Monday is business, gotta get this light maintenance form in and get some reliable internet. Then clean out the old apartment and get my bond back. Oh yeah.

Crossposted.

Catchyas.

Flying Lotus.

2012-01-11T04:18:00.000-08:00

'Lo everyone.

So. Lots of adventures to write about. Well. Two or three. Um. Yeah.

Where we left off. Last Saturday, headed to Brunswick st for a catchup beer or ten with Emily, just pubhopping, ending up in Bimbos with delicious cheap pizza. Met up with Bec back in the city, then found Loretta and Jeremy and headed to the HiFi.

The support acts were fairly samey, nothing mindblowing, except for the volume. Not that they didn't do some impressive stuff, but most people seemed to be waiting for the main event. Meh.

Flying Lotus was easily the best thing I've seen this year (hurr hurr hurr, he writes a week in). Some fantastic stuff, I did enjoy him dropping in the first verse of Yonkers, funny hearing all the hipsters shouting about Triceratops. In the second half of his set he let loose, oh my god hearing stuff like GNG BNG that loooud... brilliant. And then just two bars of the drums from Portishead's Machine Gun (I practically died), the chorus from Idioteque by Radiohead (!), then bam, Do The Astral Plane, manipulated and messed around and played loud as hell. He seemed to be enjoying the entire thing as well, crowd going nuts, huge cheesy grin on his face the entire time. Awesome, just awesome, and I'm that keen to see him again.

After that, a bit of gloating, then crashed at Bec's after chatting to Loretta til dawn (oops). May have overslept somewhat and then had to sneak out after running into Ellen. Meh.

Didn't do much for a couple of days, then caught up with Aiden in the city over a fancy beer at Fed Square, dropped in on Shona and Emily to drop off a book, then got an invite to a gathering in Boronia with some of the Puggs crowd. Not a bad evening, watched some Adventure Time (which drove the girls nuts as it didn't make sense) and Dodgeball, played some drinking games, argued music, and yes, Aiden, I may have spilled a drink or two, you bastard.

This morning was pretty painful, as Jacinta had work at like 9 so we all got kicked out before then. I have not been awake this early for a while. Nice and refreshing rain outside that saturated us in two minutes as well. Made it home to Glenferrie and crashed for a couple of hours after hotcakes and hot showers.

Got a text from Denny so this afternoon I headed all the way out to Footscray to check out his new digs with Kelly. Nice place they've got, little tricky to find. They need to invest in a couch and a microwave though. Still, they have the essentials (the PS3 and a goldfish bowl) set up. They seem happy, which is good. On my way home dropped in on Bec at work and got laughed at. Hurm.

Tonight's been nice and quiet. Yep.

This week I want to head out and see a few things, then oh god paying a billion dollars for my new apartment, then bam, moving in. Which will be fun. I should probably start packing some stuff up... or something. Meh. There isn't much stuff. Might just have to make a couple of trips, that's all. Or chuck it in Simon's van? We'll see.

Oh well.

Crossposted.

peace.

One Armed Scissor.

2012-01-06T02:29:00.000-08:00

'Lo everyone.

Alright, first post for the year. Apologies for it not being as exciting as last years, what with the whole Falls wrap up, but I have had a lot of adventures, in my defence.

So, new years eve this year was a very, very quiet affair compared to last year. Lot of sitting around drinking very heavily (so heavily that about half the people puked, and one poor bastard has to sit out til the countdown). We did take Isaac's little blowup raft out for a spin ("by the end of it they'll have five people on it" we managed to get to four), and shaved almost every sparkler in Sale to make a very bright sparkler bomb out of a Pringles can.

Still, no one drowned, we caught the countdown on triple j, and in the morning despite some heavy hangovers and more puking we all made it home alright.

Spent the rest of the afternoon recovering, much to Fraser's disgust, as he needed a taxi. On my last night, we headed to Sam's for beer pong and pizza.

First movie for the year!

Predators - ***
Yeah, pretty Rodriguez-y, lots of blood, twists, Danny Trejo, etc etc. Lots of homages to the original as well, which was nice. Didn't like the needless romantic bits, this is an action film, dammit. Oh well. Anyway, a good drunken popcorn action film, worth seeing if you liked the original.

Next morning, again, bit of a hangover since it was like a billion degrees overnight, then home and onto the afternoon train, conveniently missing all the siblings.

Unfortunately, the train was packed, and the air conditioning was out. All the people from Bairnsdale were either shirtless or dying. This lasted until Traralgon, which felt like an hour's trip, and then they made everyone get off and take the bus because it was "not safe". To be fair, there was sweat beading on my arms after about ten minutes, which was not particularly pleasant. Well done Vline, making us rural Victorians proud (and giving us a sauna).

So, home again, met up with Aiden and Emily in St Kilda for a few drinks at the Espy and watched the sunset (Lion King style, not even kidding), then Aiden and I headed to a new pub, the Roxanne Parlour. Nice place, could be a regular bar with a stage if they had more tables, a little tricky to get to though.

So, we waited around a bit, surveying the crowd of hipsters. And there were a lot of hipsters, including king hipster with his waist length hair, champion's moustache, and leopard print jacket. Relatively cheap beer, too.

Missed the first band, then there was The Death Set, who did Sleigh Bells style punk riffs to a backing track. And they were awesome, that sort of slacker-punk that hipsters do these days. Not angry, just sleazy. The crowd got into it, and I may have jumped into the pit. Singer got crowdsurfed (an achievement for such a tiny venue), and at one stage they convinced the entire crowd to crouch on the ground, then spring back up. Good stuff, worth seeing.

After that, more drinking, then French Horn Rebellion. This is the band that sold Aiden, I think. They did the whole 80s-synths Cut/Copy/Miami Horror/Bag Raiders thing, but on occasion the lead singer pulled a french horn out of nowhere and played a solo, including one from in the crowd. How cool. Aiden went nuts, of course. He later bought their shirt of the lead singer, got it signed by him as well. Brilliant.

Found myself at the front for Unknown Mortal Orchestra once again, this time next to a rabid fan trying to encourage her reluctant boyfriend to come closer, and some very drunk girls who seemed to have no idea where they were. They put on a good set, this time with a drummer who didn't look like a lost twelve year old and could play a surprisingly good solo. The sound wasn't amazing though, even up the front, which Ruban, he of the throat tattoo, was continually apologising for. Having listened to their album a few times now, I still reckon they sound better live; they lose that weird not-sixties sheen, and the crazy layers, but they turn into a Tame Impala-y rock band instead, which to be honest I prefer.

Stumbled home after this, Aiden crashed in Woosh's room after we hung out with a drunk and pukey Angus and his mates for a bit. This did not end well for my bathroom.

Headed back into the city and caught most of the Vasco Era's free set at the Worker's after sleeping in almost too late, then Aiden and I grabbed a cheeky afternoon beer and I somehow found myself in a JB Hifi. Terrible.

Didn't get up to much yesterday apart from making Angus clean my bathroom. Yeah. Also had a go at cooking kofta balls. Not a bad experiment, really, next time they'll be fried for less time and will have a lot more spiciness though. Bring it, you krishna swine.

Today, helped Angus move all of his crap out of 102, up to a very swish third floor two bedroom apartment. He has an awful lot of stuff though, and we're still not done. He's still got a fridge, two bikes, and a tyre lying around here. It's a nice place though, he and Baz have done well for themselves, and I look forward to beers and chills up there this year.

Suddenly, tonight I got a frantic call from Bec. "OMG FLYING LOTUS IS PLAYING TOMORROW!!!!!!" Got tickets without a second thought, and gloated to the necessary parties. Very lucky, this is what I get for not reading the street press for a week or two, I miss out on things. Oh well. I'm sort of glad I got tickets for this instead of Justice, though I did get a distortiony phone call from Isaac (cheers man).

So, tomorrow, FlyLo at 2am, I believe I'll be hammered as hell, and it will be glorious. Then I dunno what happens for the rest of the week. Meh. See how we go.

Crossposted.

Catchyas.

2011 Wrap-up.

2011-12-30T17:51:00.000-08:00

'Lo all.

I'll get the cliches out of the way first. What a year, such fun was had, learnt a lot, bring on the next one, etc etc.

No, but in all seriousness, this year was huge. That whole moving out of home thing and all (even though I'm currently typing this back in Sale...), starting uni, pretending to be a respectable and independent member of society, all that jazz.

I think the whole experience went pretty well, to be honest. I'm not dead yet, and to be honest the city's kickarse. There's actual things to do that don't involve ending up in Ringers every weekend! Amazing!

The novelty will wear off, I'm sure, but in the mean time, it's awesome. Still haven't done everything I'd like to yet either.

And of course there were all sorts of other adventures, some of which I won't go into here, but jesus. Excrement hitting the air conditioning device indeed. But again, still alive.

I fear I'm becoming more of a hipster since I moved to the city, this is a genuine concern. You meet a hell of a lot of new people, and the majority of city kids are hipsters, which is much better than the bogans in Sale. But most of the people I got to know this year were pretty cool, here's to more drinks in Prudence, Nevs or Puggs.

That's probably the other thing, again, it's nice not being in Ringers week after week, and instead exploring the buttload of other bars (and becoming something of a beer connoisseur with Aiden). Did enjoy the James Squire Brewhouse, Biero's, the Little Creatures Beerhall, and the Public Bar (RIP). Plus all the tiny pubs and bandrooms we found, will be returning to the Espy an awful lot, and Brunswick st definitely needs more exploration.

I think uni is good. There, I said it. It's way, way better than high school because all of those annoying people you never want to hang out with? You only have to put up with them for two hours a week in most cases. Brilliant. Plus they don't care if you arrange all your classes for the afternoon or skip the odd lecture as long as you keep up. I'm liking my course so far; may have been a bit reluctant about philosophy but it ended up being alright. Wish I could say the same for critical thinking. Journalism and the media units were good fun though. Not sure about next year, but I get to do cinema studies, that'll be fun, right?

Musicwise, holy crap. I can't believe I've seen so many of my favourite bands this year, some of them twice (!). The National, Iggy and the Stooges, Grinderman, Tame Impala, Death From Above 1979, Portishead, The Flaming Lips, Vasco Era and Children Collide about five times each... There is a very, very long list that I won't put here, but suffice to say I reckon it'd make some people jelly. I hit too many festivals, which wasn't particularly good for my wallet, but so, so totally worth it. I would like to live at Meredith when I grow old, and take my children to the festivals there. Such a beautiful place, awesome vibe, and incredible lineups. Can't wait to head back in March. Looking forward to Battles and Justice in the new year as well (and maybe Radiohead). Still pissed I missed out on Queens of the Stone Age, Spiritualized, Flying Lotus, Modest Mouse, The Drones, and Regurgitator playing Unit... Best gigs would have to be Portishead and being on the barrier for Mudhoney and roaring along to Fix Me, and maybe the Flips for the sheer "oh god what the hell is going on" factor.

Surprisingly crap year for music and movies that got released though, maybe it just wasn't my sort of thing. I did enjoy the Black Keys' new album, even though it did not sound like a Black Keys album, same with The Strokes. Cameras finally released an LP, which I want to pick up on vinyl soon, same with the Middle East, who put out the best Australian album this year, I reckon. Justice's new album was a bit of a disappointment though, and I'm already sick of The Jezabels and Gotye. Pumped for Sleigh Bells's new album, among others.

Discovered a buttload of stuff this year though, like Spiritualized, Liars, Autolux, Mogwai, Bass Drum of Death... lots and lots.

Watched too many movies (see previous post), but did not see Transformers or Breaking Dawn, and don't plan to. Really enjoyed The Proposition (especially since I wrote an essay on it and got a HD!), Four Lions, Human Traffic, Dr Strangelove, and He Died With a Felafel in His Hand (cheers Bec). Bring on Batman and Prometheus next year. We discovered the Astor as well, which I've visited about half a dozen times and am planning to visit a billion times next year. The Back to the Future marathon was pretty awesome, since there was a Delorean out the front.

Oh yeah, and I played a lot of pinball on my fancy new phone and read a lot of books and enjoyed the hell out of Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones. That's everything covered.

In other news. Oh god living in the city ten minutes from the MCG is awesome, especially when Carlton's playing pretty well for once. Must have hit a dozen games, finally justifying my MCC membership. And Collingwood lost the grand final, life is good.

The family seems to be doing well, I know I don't visit home often enough but everyone's still kicking. The girls are on the threshold of becoming a living hell for poor old Beardman, but in the mean time they're wearing White Stripes and Queens of the Stone Age shirts (ha), and in the living room right now they're trying to play Bohemian Rhapsody on Guitar Hero. Yeah, I bet your eleven year old sisters never did that. Fraser needs a bit of sense beaten into him, but he's better than last year. Beardman is alive and well, he's now a bro, and I think we'll be taking him to trivia a bit more.

Sale, on the other hand, seems to have imploded somewhat, socially at least. There only seems to be drama when the horde's all in town, so enough of that rubbish. More kids should move to the city, you'll love it. My roommates were all fantastic people, for all the returning-home-at-4am-and-playing-Kanye-West-really-loudly nights, there were also kickarse nights out rampaging through Nevs. Best of luck to all three of you next year, specially the J Woosh in England.

Speaking of world affairs, holy crap a lot of evil dudes died this year, didn't they. Heaps of crazy natural disasters, seemed to be a new one every week for a while (spoiled a breakfast or two). I still disagree with the Occupy movement in Australia, and I'm looking forward to the presidential run next year because I am a boring geek. And, you know, there's still the threat of a nice nuclear war, as always.

Right, better stop rambling. Some things I learnt this year, among others: really isn’t that difficult being in the city; just because a bar is popular doesn’t mean it’s very good; women have a tendency to be surprisingly selfish creatures (well duh, says every male reader); travel broadens the mind wonderfully; it is entirely possible to do a one day music festival by yourself; it is entirely possible to lose track of the days of the week and recover; never miss an opportunity to head out and catch up with people or abuse free wifi privileges; keep an eye on one’s phone bill to the point of neuroticism; and never pretend for a second that if Woosh and Angus both need to use the bathroom at the same time that they’ll close the doors (Battleshits? Electric Avenue? Jesus...).

Most importantly, I think, for all the good things this year, I stand by something I picked up in philosophy class, in like March or something. I believe it was Sartre who said, “hell is other people”. Looking forward to moving into a one bedroom apartment next month, as I am an antisocial bastard.

What else will happen next year, I wonder. There's a few bits of unfinished business which will need to be finished, whether for good or for ill remains to be seen. Other than that, since Pat and Jake are on my campus next year, I foresee more pub crawls and the usual shenanigans. If we survive tonight. We'll see.

Happy new year to everyone.

Um. Crossposted, I guess. Should I chuck this on facebook and be an attention whore? Meh.

peace.

Movie Edition 2011.

2011-12-30T17:06:00.000-08:00

You know the drill.

Into the Wild - ****
The kid was surprisingly whiny. And everything was so depressing. But it was good. Loving the Eddie Vedder soundtrack too. Definitely sort of appealling to the same crowd that Theroux or Kerouac novels do. But yeah, it definitely wasn't the standard hipster indie film I was expecting.

The Proposition - ****
Not bad for a western. Very Nick Cave, especially John Hurt's character, and the entire, graphic ending. Loving the soundtrack as well, though I might be a bit biased. It's a familiar sort of story, but it's just an interesting take on it by setting it in colonial Australia. Did not like David Wenham's overacting. Check it out.

Primer - ***
Very slow pace, but they rush everything. You're on the back foot the whole time. To be honest, I liked it for this, but everything was left open and unexplained at the end, and not in a good way.

Gangs of New York - ***
My disc kept skipping, so maybe it'd be better if I hadn't lost half an hour's worth of dialogue. Still a little slow, after one hell of an opening scene, but the ending was awesome.

Garage Days - ***1/2
It's funny how fast this has dated. When this came out, Australian music was all about bands like Spiderbait, Jebediah, the Superjesus, Frenzal Rhomb, and You Am I. Powderfinger had only just released Odyssey Number 5, they were still sort of a grungey garage band. I wish things were still like this. Anyway, not a bad story, not sure if Pia Miranda is hot or not, and the tripping out sequences was hilarious. Also amusing was the amount of importance placed on Homebake, which didn't run this year.

The Illusionist - ****
It's like they took this film, and just dipped it in sepia. Everyone had a silly accent too. But the ending made it worth it. I still think the Prestige was better, but this one had an insane tweeest.

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus - ***
Very hot redhead. Confusing plot. Johnny Depp was in Captain Jack mode, as usual. Not sure what on earth Tom Waits was doing. Visually though, very cool, and you can definitely see the Monty Python influence.

Mary and Max - ****1/2
Much like The Road, it's just depressing thing on top of depressing thing. There's a wry sense of humour to it all, like in Harvey Krumpet, but it's still ridiculously sad. Just when you think things can't get any worse for these people, it does. Which is kind of amusing.

Four Lions - ****
This sort of film needs to be made more. It's not sympathetic to terrorism, but it does make fun of it. And it is stupidly funny. The ending, and the bits in the credits, are hilarious. Still suffers from being a little predictable, but oh well.

12 Monkeys - ***1/2
A little predictable, you can see how it all ends towards the very beginning if you pay attention. Was not impressed with Brad Pitt's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest impression. It was definitely a Terry Gilliam film as well, there were parts in the "future" which seemed a little Pythonesque, and it was also easy to see the progression from this to Fear and Loathing. Still, not a bad dystopian film.

Event Horizon - ****
This one was a lot of fun, genuine body horror, kinda rare to see these days. Also liked the overt Chaos references. Little cheesy towards the start, but still. Not a bad film at all.

When You're Strange: A Film About The Doors - ***1/2
We missed the start, disappointingly, but the rest was pretty good. Killer soundtrack, funnily enough. Johnny Depp narrating as well. Did like all the concert footage, not so much Jim Morrison posing at the camera on a rock or swimming or driving around, but oh well. Worth checking out if you like The Doors, obviously.

Sunshine - ***1/2
Took a couple of shots to get through this, but it really isn't bad. Pretty standard Danny Boyle playing around with the camera, especially when he gets to the end, but it ends up being just a shinier version of Event Horizon at the end.

Gattaca - ****
Lots of piss. Like, for a heavy science fiction film about morality and crap, there's a lot of piss. Piss in bags, piss in catheters, pissing in cups, pissing in wheelchairs... piss everywhere. Other than that, very interesting film, I guess I'm a little late to the party.

Clerks - ****1/2
Hilarious. I gotta hit the rest of Kevin Smith's earlier films now. Very stupid film, and you can tell it was made on less than a shoestring, but still awesome.

Not Quite Hollywood - ****
Yeah, I thought this was a documentary about the Australian film industry with Quentin Tarantino, it's actually a porno. Not even kidding. It's interesting, but it really is mainly a porno. Not what I was expecting at all. I had no idea Australia had these sort of films getting released back in the day, no way in hell they'd come out now. Pretty funny though, especially the insane stuntman who did an 80ft dive while on fire.

Equilibrium - **1/2
Kinda disappointed by this one, it seemed to take its cues a little too much from the Matrix and 1984. And the awesome fighting scenes didn't really kick in til the very ending. Still, kept twisting around, and the awesome fighting scenes were awesome. Especially when a dude's face got cut off.

Natural Born Killers - ****
"I know. Let's satirize serial killers and the media. But instead of doing it funny, let's do it extra violent. And instead of filming it conventionally, let's make every angle skewed and flick between black and white and colour, and cartoons!" STOP DOING THIS. The creepy montages were cool, and the big prison riot at the end. It was difficult to take seriously.

Rebel Without a Cause - ***
It's meant to be this big thing, but to be honest if it got released today it'd go right next to Machete, Hobo With A Shotgun, Planet Terror, and Black Dynamite. Basically just a vehicle for James Dean to look cool. There was a lot more blood, death, and gay undertones than I was expecting for a film from the fifties. Still, it wasn't awful, not a bad ride.

Rango - ****1/2
Yes. Loved the Dr Gonzo and Raoul Duke cameos. The dogfight with the bats (...in bat country) was the best I've seen in years. The way they just included bits of all these other films says a lot about what people look for in a film these days (that's the media student in me fighting to get out), but it was enjoyable. Character design was awesomely messed up, though I'm not sure why girl-lizard had hair... Good film.

Jackass 3D - *****
I'm a sucker for this sort of crap, as you know. I can't imagine what actually seeing this in 3D would be like. Highlights included the midget fight, the volcano, and the swimming pool trebuchet (with extra wheelbarrow).

Public Enemies - ***
Good to finally watch this whole thing. It's good, but it does get repetitive and seems to go for longer than it should. Some of the dialogue is jarringly cheesy too. Redeemed by it's action sequences. I'm a sucker for Tommy guns, I think.

Eraserhead - ****
Slow as hell, noisy as hell, but who cares, it'll freak you the hell out. Kinda not as much creepy as I was hoping, but what we got was still very WTF. And gorey too, which was cool. As Oscar said coming out of the cinema though, it's more of an experience, and yeah, I dunno if I'd see it again. Still very cool though.

X Men First Class - ****
If only it didn't have cheesy dialogue. It had a lot of promise to actually say something about discrimination, but it didn't, instead it just threw cliches around. Other than that, awesome film. Good action, very funny, good soundtrack. As good as the (first half of) the first one.

Human Traffic - ****1/2
I'd like it more if I liked the music, but oh well. It surprised me, to be honest, ended up being a feel good drug film. Which makes a nice change to the Requiem/Trainspotting type of films. Would fit in well with Dazed and Confused instead, I reckon. Trainspotting's definitely a big influence, but yeah, happier ending.

Easy Rider - **1/2
I get the feeling that if I was high it'd be better. It just seemed too slow, especially the long, arty landscape shots. The ending was good, though the trip sequence felt like a music video. Meh, I can see why it's considered a classic, but that doesn't mean the whole thing is enjoyable.

Sanctum - ***
Definite sense of claustrophobia throughout the whole thing, which is good, but my god the actors and dialogue suck. Worth a watch either way.

127 Hours - ***
This, on the other hand, had a good actor, similar sense of tension (cept you kinda know what he does at the end, but my god the shoehorned in message sucked and let the whole thing down. I dunno. I'm always a little iffy about Danny Boyle films that aren't Trainspotting, his last three (this, Sunshine, and Slumdog Millionaire) all have similar editing things which annoy me... maybe he needs a new director of photography.

The Social Network - ****
Fincher. Good. Definitely made you think Zuckerberg was a dick. Ironic seeing Justin Timberlake as the creator of Napster. But yeah, managed to make a film about lawyers and computer geeks into something pretty entertaining. Looking forward to Girl with a Dragon Tattoo.

The Adjustment Bureau - ***1/2
Enjoyable, I guess. Little too mysterious for it's own good. Lot of heavy philosophical crap skimmed over (I know this because we had to study the whole free will thing). Not sure about the hats. Meh.

Dr Strangelove or, How I Learnt to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb - ****1/2
Pretty funny for a Kubrick film. Actually fairly fast paced, though there's still some filler. I believe I may have to check out some more Peter Sellers movies, any other film geeks in the house with recommendations?

Tron Legacy - **
Giant Daft Punk music video co-starring David Bowie. It'd be good if you could mute the dialogue, I suppose. Also cgi The Dude looked creepy as all hell.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2 - ***
Big and flashy, but disappointing. There's bits that just don't seem to fit, and they left too much out. Still, the beginning is fast, but then, that should leave more room for scenes from the book, not meh additions or needless slow motion bits. Oh well.

Thank You For Smoking - ****
Got this off Baz, awesome film, cept Harvey Dent looks waaay too much like Jaime Lannister. Very, very amusing, moves pretty quickly, and the ending's pretty good too. I enjoyed how he got poisoned as well.

Greenberg - **1/2
Reminded me of Ghost World, in that it's about a whole lot of awkward people who don't really end up doing much over the film. Not bad, but not amazing either.

Blessed - ***
Cheesy and mildly predictable, but definitely a downer film. That was some crazy Blixa Bargeld screaming at the end as well. Could tell Christos Tsolkias has a hand in writing it during one scene involving a Greek dude and exploitation. Still, not a bad film.

Source Code - ****
Just when you think it's a crappy ending it suddenly makes you think. Enjoyable film, lots of twists, much like Duncan Jones' previous film Moon. Definitely worth seeing at least once. Some plotholes that you acn't really think too much about but still.

Captain America - **1/2
Meh. Had the whole popcorn action flick part down, but it almost played the propanganda thing a bit too seriously, it needed more... satire? Dunno. Wasn't as good as Iron Man. Not that interested in Thor, and the Avengers looks meh.

He Died With A Felafel In His Hand - ****1/2
Brilliant, just brilliant. Any film that opens with Golden Brown, plays Buy Me A Pony over the title, and makes a big thing about The Mercy Seat (squee) is gold, and the best part was the rest of the film delivered too. Very distinctly Australian (lol at Sydney), some of the characters were (particularly) relatable, and it was funny. Ending wasn't amazing though, and I'm not sure it needed a tacked on love sidestory.

The Boat That Rocked - ****
Saccharine, killer soundtrack. A little too light hearted and far too many montages of people listening to the radio, but the cast was solid, and I'll admit I liked the vignette sort of style. Worth seeing if you're into good music and cheesy endings (and the IT Crowd/Coupling/Bill Nighy).

Hurm, seems like less films than usual. Oh well.

Arming Eritrea.

2011-12-30T02:14:00.000-08:00

'Lo all.

Well, last post post for the year. How pathetic, once I add the movies and the wrapup there won't even be sixty posts for the year.

Still not a lot to report from the last week or so. Got to drive to Ocean Grove for Christmas, good to catch up with the grandparents and Buninyong Fords, the usual awesome lunch as well. Crap weather though.

Next day, hit the Boxing Day Test, watched Australia not fail miserably (a pleasant change), and caught up with Simon and Brian before meeting Aiden and trying not to freeze to death in the afternoon. We then hit the Astor for a Monty Python double (good fun being in a packed cinema, crowd is so diverse too), and went exploring through St Kilda to get to the Espy, and didn't get stabbed, go us.

The Vasco Era put on a sweaty, predictably awesome show, for free. Pretty standard setlist, not much from the first album, no Lucille (or For No One, for the fourth or fifth time), and only the two singles from the latest album, but the usual covers and pulverising version of Voodoo Chile (complete with Ted launching himself into the audience). Crowd here was mainly female (read, no mosh), did see Claire and Michael again, and got a free jug with no roofies (as far as I can remember...).

Spent the next day recovering, even though I wanted to be at the cricket.

The Boat That Rocked - ****
Saccharine, killer soundtrack. A little too light hearted and far too many montages of people listening to the radio, but the cast was solid, and I'll admit I liked the vignette sort of style. Worth seeing if you're into good music and cheesy endings (and the IT Crowd/Coupling/Bill Nighy).

Angus went to Falls the other day, a little bit jealous, but oh well. I've already seen Crystal Castles and I still have faith that Regurgitator will do a Unit tour. Rather amusing watching him prepare his cache though.

Today I went back to Sale, had a good catch up with Molly and her brother on the train, and got treated to a pub parma at the Star. Oh yeah.

Tomorrow, shenanigans. Will post the usual end of year crap in the afternoon, and whatever I can remember the day after. If we don't die.

Crossposted.

Catchyas.

Airbag.

2011-12-23T05:10:00.000-08:00

'Lo everyone.

So, better catch up on things before three rushed posts at the very end of the year.

Headed back to Sale last week, after doing some christmas shopping (took all of fifteen minutes, it's good being a dude). Train was slow, as usual. Good to catch up with the Doyles, girls all liked their presents. Beardman was in his Foo Fighters shirt (brilliant).

The usual shenanigans occured, chips were consumed, visted Denny's and Pat's, caught up with just about everyone. Headed out Saturday night after a few beers out at Wurruk the night before and an excellent lunch in Stratford. Things were going well at Pat's playing pool and yelling along to good music with strangers at the Star, then things slowly got blurry and drama-y. Rubbish. I blame Ringers.

Awkward the next morning for all concerned, then off to Marlay Point for drinking, cricket, and swimming. Nice afternoon, nice crowd, nice evening. No one cut their foot on the glass, and Hayden and British didn't explode anything. Too damn hot sleeping in the car, and then as soon as I woke up it began pissing down rain. Haven't been stuck in the rain like that since June. And it only lasted ten minutes. Managed to pack up the tent, throw a ball at people in the water, and get home alright though.

Back in Alfred st, house is pretty empty since my roommates are either at work or overseas, and I haven't really been up to a lot.

Captain America - **1/2
Meh. Had the whole popcorn action flick part down, but it almost played the propanganda thing a bit too seriously, it needed more... satire? Dunno. Wasn't as good as Iron Man. Not that interested in Thor, and the Avengers looks meh.

He Died With A Felafel In His Hand - ****1/2
Brilliant, just brilliant. Any film that opens with Golden Brown, plays Buy Me A Pony over the title, and makes a big thing about The Mercy Seat (squee) is gold, and the best part was the rest of the film delivered too. Very distinctly Australian (lol at Sydney), some of the characters were (particularly) relatable, and it was funny. Ending wasn't amazing though, and I'm not sure it needed a tacked on love sidestory.

So that's pretty much it. I finished Breaking Bad (holy jesus awesome, bring on season five), and Coupling (big decline in quality in the last season, bring back Jeff!), time to start Dexter, I think. Also onto my third Thomas Hardy book in a row, thanks mum.

This week will be fun, as always. Christmas in Ocean Grove, cricket, Monty Python and Vasco Era for Boxing Day, room inspections after that, then jetting back home to visit people and get brutally trashed for New Years since I won't be watching Crystal Castles/Flying Lotus. Hurm.

Crossposted (but not to facebook anymore?)

peace.

Meredith Music Festival.

2011-12-12T05:45:00.001-08:00

'Lo all.

Once again, before we get to business, not a lot to report this week other than hitting the pub with Bernice, Annie and Macca in Hawthorn. My god I cannot stand The Hawthorn. Nevs was good though.

Anyway. So Wednesday night I got a text from Bennett saying he couldn't give me a lift any more, so after some frantic texts Bec found me a car seat. Life is good. Picked up supplies the next morning after signing the paperwork for my place next year (OMG EXCITING), then asked Angus for a lift to Bec's with all my stuff. We went via KewBar, where Wells was preparing his cache, then we took the freeway to a place in Carlton, Boxy complaining the entire way there about needing a piss and being extra paranoid about where. They dropped me off at Bec's without too much trouble though, if maybe too much honking on the horn (cheers Box).

Couple of familiar faces inside, getting keen to start cooking some muffins. We ended up watching some Coupling while waiting for the butter to work, not a bad show at all.

Up painfully early the next morning, Bec and I were out of the house by 7 when Sarah Jane arrived, we rocked out to the Avalanches all the way up. The best part about this arrangement, however, was that both Sarah and her sister were volunteering at the festival, so they got to use the special staff lane. This meant that we were parked at the reception bit at 9am when it opened, and not waiting in line for five hours to drive in. Drove straight past Wells and Bennett chilling on their boot, which was hilarious since I know they left two hours earlier than we did.

So we went in, had a look around, waited for the rest of the crew to get in. The Supernatural Amphitheatre is amazing, lanterns and stuff strung up everywhere and heaps of couches on the hill, and so green. Stage seemed kinda small but this didn't really matter. The rest of the campgrounds were nice as well, there seemed to be a lot of room. And there was a ferris wheel.

Once Ellen's car got in, we set up camp in some gum trees about ten minutes from the stage, and right next to a water tank, toilets, and a giant flag, which ended up being incredibly useful. The campsite was pretty cramped, as some of us brought tents that were far too big (in my defence, I stole my one off Lobo (THANKS HEAPS MAN!!!)). A gigantic baby blue double decker bus rolled past once we'd set up, which was incredible, I would like one for christmas to go to festivals in. Bec and I headed down to the International Food Court (makes it sound so much more fancy) for some delicious kofta balls, then caught up with the rest before the first band. Bought a couple of coconuts to drink out of, very novel idea, especially since they hack it open with a machete in front of you.

Steven and I jumped into the crowd for the very first band, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. I was impressed at how many people were in the band (including dedicated tambourinist and harmonica guy), and the fact that they started a mosh this early in the day. They sounded like a more psychedelicy Bass Drum of Death/Black Lips, very awesome and worth further inspection.

After that, we retreated up the hill and sat under a massive tree for Cash Savage, who to be honest kinda sucked. Not my sorta thing, more country than blues. After a vodka slurpee, Bec and I headed down to the barrier for Unknown Mortal Orchestra. They weren't bad, I'm not 100% familiar with their stuff after only having listened to their album once, but they were really good, at time pretty Tame Impala-ey after stomping on a few reverb pedals. I'd see them again. Liked the singer's tattoo on his throat.

Went back to the tent for food and such after that, while Kurt Vile went on stage. I've only checked him out on youtube beforehand, so I figured I wasn't missing much. Made it to the front of the crowd before Explosions in the Sky just before sunset, and they ended up being incredible. Just really, really loud. The only problem I had was that despite their deep and meaningful lyrics (that's a joke), once people realised that there was no big singalong choruses and it was just instrumental, they just started talking. Oh well.

Not sure any of us knew what to expect from Barbarion. Found ourselves on the barrier while the roadies tested some flamethrowers (!!!). Basically, imagine Tenacious D as the most cheesy metal band ever, with as many flamethrowers and fireworks as Rammstein, all in various medieval costumes. Brilliant stuff. The drummer managed to keep his Grim Reaper hood on the entire time, and the lead guitarist (who looked oddly a lot like a celtic Beardman) kept flashing the crowd with his kilt. I'm not sure I needed to see a really fat dude in S&M leather gladiator gear either, though he had a cool helmet at the start. Really good stuff, especially the flamethrowing guitars and axes, and the crowd got into it. Some of the more devoted fans smuggled in viking helmets, axes, and kegs, and were roaring every word next to me. I think this is another band that I'd see again.

Once again we headed back and chilled at the campsite as Ladyhawke started up, then I went exploring. Ladyhawke herself was pretty meh, not very in tune. Checked out the cinema with Georgie, Jeremy and Alice, where some trippy cartoons from the seventies were playing. No idea how people find these. This was cool until they stopped and a zombie film went on, and that was just awful. Back to the campsite.

Since Bec was desperate to see them, before Gang Gang Dance's set I woke her up ("it's ok, I won't fall asleep!"), and once again we were on the barrier. Unfortunately, there was a malfunctioning keyboard that messed up their set, despite the lead singer's attempts to salvage things by crowdsurfing and pulling a random baked dude on stage. Not a bad jam band though, I'll give them that. Crashed pretty hard afterwards.

Woke up in pain the next day, it was far too hot to be in a tent. Emerged and went hunting for a coffee, missing the Ballarat Municipal Brass Band in the process (I know, I know. Still curious to see what a brass band could do at a festival, but once I heard the dadrock covers I knew it was a lost cause). Sat in the shade watching the Rechords with Bec, then back to the tent during Adalita (who apparently put on a very self indulgent set). Also saw the Pope. Had a chat to a girl at the campsite who helped run Tone Deaf, had survived Burning Man, and was seeing the guitarist from Brian Jonestown Massacre. Even if only one of those things are true that's pretty cool.

After Adalita was lunchtime, while a punk supergroup called OFF! started up. They sounded pretty awesome, to be honest. Ran into Sloane once they finished, went for a stroll past Inspiration Point with her, then the group split up and I ran straight into Wells and Bennett enjoying a smoke on the grass while a wedding occurred behind them (not even kidding). Had a good chat to them and their Kiwi mate Ryan, and watched a giant slip and slide get set up, used, and then confiscated after a dude wiped out on the gravel.

I should also say that Saturday afternoon had the coolest costumes, I saw a lot of morphsuits and a Hunter S guy (funny that) among others, but it was only looking through the proper photos that I realised how awesome it would have been to sit up on that hill and peoplewatch. Lego men and stormtroopers and Mortal Kombat guys and strippers...

Made it back to the arena for Graveyard Train, who were absolutely awesome. They got The Boot, which I believe means they were the best act the crowd had seen so far, and is a very high honour. I raised my connie as well once Kim got it off ("HOW MANY KNOTS DO YOU NEED?!?"). I am keen to see these guys again, their sound is pretty unique, and the big choruses would make fantastic drinking songs. These guys were the band I went past at the St Kilda Festival with the chain-and-hammer guy. Brilliant stuff.

Made a trip for some water with Georgie and Kim that turned into HEY LET'S GET A FREE PHOTO FROM VANESSA!, but made it back in time for the second half of Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears, who rocked. Suddenly I was on the barrier just before Mudhoney, yelling along to Rage Against the Machine getting piped over.

Mudhoney were superb, opened with Suck You Dry and kept the energy going. They played a lot of stuff from Superfuzz, massive screamalong to Touch Me I'm Sick as well. Good fun when Mark Arm threw his guitar down and just jumped around the stage. At the end of the set they pulled the lead singer from OFF! (who I just discovered was the non-Rollins frontman of Black Flag! Woah!) and did a pretty insane version of Fix Me, which me and another dude behind me were roaring.

Between sets, I looked behind us to the rest of the Amphitheatre, which was just starting to light up. Looked brilliant. Lots of crazy poles with stuff on them (ie, "meet me next to the guy holding up Kermit/the owl with hipster glasses/the bamboo stick with all the glowy things"), and way up at the back of the crowd, a giant cow thing made of what I hope was cardboard getting passed around. The security guards didn't know what to do, since I suppose it was a hazard, but that's still really awesome.

Icehouse were up next, and to be honest I thought they weren't really my thing, at least at the start when they were playing more 80s synthy stuff, but then they said something about playing stuff from "when we were punks", and that was alright, slightly slower Saints/Rifles type stuff. Big singalong to Great Southern Land at the end of it, and it was kinda cool to see one of the band member's children sitting side of stage.

Something else I should comment on, the amount of younger kids here was insane, and it was pretty cool to see them on the barrier for stuff like Barbarion. I reckon if I ever breed and find myself a cool wife I'd bring my children to a thing like this til they got old enough to be embarrassed in my presence.

Anyway. Pretty long setup for Cut/Copy, they had a lot of cowbells. They put on a very flashy set, very very 80s, as a girl behind me kept saying. Also kinda gay, lots of hugging and wrestling and awkward dancing. Still. Not bad, I suppose.

Things got properly exciting after this. It was extra good being on the barrier since it had started raining during Cut/Copy's set. Had a chat to the loud girl behind me about how awesome Grinderman was and how the Bad Seeds are/are not better, then suddenly they finished setting up the extra lights and stacks of Marshalls and then oh my god is that Jim Sclavunos OH MY GOD IT IS AND THERE'S WARREN ELLIS AND MARTIN P CASEY AND JESUS GOD THAT'S NICK CAVE WOOOOOOOO.

They put on a pretty good set, shorter than the one at BDO but way less filler (Palaces of Montezuma is filler, dammit), and way more interaction with the crowd. Unfortunately, where we were was about a metre from where St Nick jumped into the crowd, much to Bec's (and to be honest, the majority of the women in the crowd's) dismay. Opened with Mickey Mouse again and closed with Love Bomb as an encore. Crazy versions of No Pussy Blues and Get It On (in which Nick accidentally knocked over the lyrics sheet and thus messed up the first verse), and he jumped in for a couple of songs, hanging around for a lot of Kitchenette while the band jammed behind him again. As The Thousands described him, Warren was wandering around the stage like a demented pirate, just awesome, smashing hihats with maracas and thrashing his violin during Heathen Child. Brilliant, brilliant stuff, which was sobered somewhat at the end when he said "that's the end for Grinderman, that's it, see you in ten years". So I'm ridiculously glad I saw them twice this year.

There was a thing for the lunar eclipse on after this, which would have been amazing if it hadn't been cloudy, I'm sure. A comedian went up on a cherry picker to announce it all, culminating in Total Eclipse of the Heart as the Moon's national anthem (they did play Pink Floyd's Eclipse beforehand though, oh well). We stuck around since there was a rumour floating around that the Avalanches were going to do a secret DJ set (OOOOOOMMMMMMMMGGGGGG), but it could have been Midnight Juggernaughts as both members were playing percussion for Cut/Copy, but in the end it was a masked Yacht Club DJs. Oh well. They seemed to be mixing all the piped over music we'd heard that day, so I said screw it and headed back to the tent. As I'd sobered up a couple of hours back and wasn't tripping on anything, I had no desire to stay up and party hard til 7am, which was when the music stopped.

Next morning, up relatively early, hunt down my coffee with Bec, Loretta, and Alice as Abbe May rocked out, then got down to the stage with the others for Eagle and the Worm, who put on a pretty enjoyable set. Then suddenly it was time for the Meredith Gift, and after grabbing some food we found ourselves with no view of the racetrack at all. In hindsight, this might have been a good thing. So we sat on the barrier and watched a few heads sprint past as Dennis Commetti tried to commentate. Apparently there was a naked wrestling match for one of the prizes. Awkward. Harry, a mate from Puggs, had a go at it, and Sarah Jane's brother made it past the heats into the final, well done that man. I can definitely see Aiden doing this race in future (... maybe not see with my eyes... you know what I mean). The guy who'd won twice before won it again, good on him.

After all these adventures, picked up all our stuff from the campsite, say goodbye to everyone, and found Sarah Jane, then watched the last band (Matt Sonic and the High Times, would it be heretical to say Kyuss-esque?) and enjoyed some last kofta balls before jumping in the car. Took us maybe an hour to actually get to the town of Meredith, then after picking up Loretta we hit the freeway and ran straight into a thing of roadworks which delayed us for another half hour or so. This is not good when everyone in the car is tired and just wants to go home and shower. Still, got to Bec's alright, said hi to James who was losing at Mario Kart on a mysterious N64 that had popped up, then headed home to Alfred st.

Unfortunately, my plan was complicated by the fact that I had to wait twenty minutes at the tram stop with all my stuff, then another half hour at Flinders st for a train. Damn Sunday timetables, not impressed. Made it home alive, and photo damage wasn't too bad considering. Had far too much maccas and wasted way too much time in the shower trying to clean out fingernails and such. I should have had a bath.

Anyway. Meredith was awesome fun. The people I went with were awesome too. I think I'll be going again next year, and to be honest I'm really keen for Golden Plains. I can see why people say it's the best festival in the world, everything's just so laid back and cool, and there really are no dickheads (I saw three Southern Cross tattoos the entire weekend). So next year, definitely.

Today's been pretty slow. I've been burning through Breaking Bad, I'm absolutely hooked, then this afternoon Patrick and Jake dropped in. They had a chat to Angus, then I took them on a brief tour of the campus (which I almost mucked up, too tired and too long since I've had to be there) since they'll both be joining me in Hawthorn next year. We headed to the Glenferrie for parmas and Fat Yaks, then to Nevs for pool, which I trounced Patrick at, and chilled out listening to Radiohead and swapping stories about shenanigans wakeboarding.

This week I'll be visiting Sale, we have a lot of activities planned, such as egging Tom when we see him and then knocking him out and tattooing for shizzle on his eyelids. Or something. I dunno. Don't tell Tom I said that. It'll be good to catch up with the droogs again though. I'll try to post again before christmas.

Hurm de furm lurm. Durm.

Crossposted.

peace.

Adventure Time.

2011-12-04T02:00:00.000-08:00

'Lo everyone.

December. Good god.

So, picking up from where we left off, James's inappropriate 19th was good fun, caught up with Aiden and Bec while drinking Duff (OMG I KNOW), and some other grammar kids I haven't seen in a while (LIKE LULU OMGx2). Headed off to a housecooling party before everyone nicked off to a gay bar, Aiden and I may have drunk the last of the goon punch. I recall putting Emily to bed, climbing onto a balcony, and playing Pokemon Stadium. Good times.

Haven't been up to a lot, really. Couple of adventures, nothing too major. Tried to head out for the last Public Bar Monday night, but refused to wait two and a half hours in line to get in, so had a couple of pints with Bec and Ben at Prudence instead. Went back to Bec's where all manner of crazy things were occuring, including one girl in a dinosaur costume and one dude whinging about Vonnegut and Metallica. Yeah...

Caught up with Meg the next day, we hit Fitzroy and St Kilda barhopping and trying to avoid record shops. It would have been a good day if it wasn't two billion degrees and muggy. That night Angus enjoyed a cheeky cider on the Safeway loading dock thingy, which was amusing. Baz and I ate popcorn waiting for a truck to arrive and run him over.

Then it rained the entirety of the next day. No good.

Had a pissup and bbq for Woosh's going away upstairs as well, which was good. Gotta start preparing for Meredith and pick up supplies (DORITOS AND APPLES! and beer), Bennett offered me a lift up there with Sloane and Wells, which is excellent. We played a lot of frisbee and soccer outside. Best of luck to Woosh for the next year or so touring the world.

Since it was about to leave town, I decided to check out the Tutankhamun thing at the museum, which to be honest wasn't that worth it. Why have the big gold mask in all the advertising if it's too delicate to take out of Egypt? Anyway, lots of shiny things, lots of cool things, and a lot of tacky stuff in the gift shop. Had a stroll through the rest of the museum since it's free if you have a concession card, may have geeked out at all the dinosaurs and plastinated corpses. I think I'll go back if I get bored, I only had time to check out half.

So much fun riding the bike around as well, nearly died twice. That night Baz was working the bar at the Eminem show, which is pretty cool, since he was getting paid to see him.

This Friday Fraser's Foo Fighters (say that five times quickly) plans fell through and the Beardman went to see them with him. I think that this is pretty awesome, how many of your fathers would see a giant stadium rock band? They only had seats at the back, but still, pretty awesome, and I'm a little jealous of missing out on seeing 40000 people sing Tribute when Tenacious D were on. Since it was Baz's last night we got trashed, resulting in Angus trying to bunny hop over a box and almost succeeding while yelling Hungry Like The Wolf.

Last couple of days have been pretty quiet, to be honest, I've been reading that Hardy book and watching Adventure Time (IT'S LIKE SPONGEBOB BUT BETTER AND MORE SCREWED UP).

This week I'll be heading to Meredith, so I'll post a wrapup of that when I get home, unless something awesome happens this week. Apologies if I forgot anything.

Crossposted.

peace.

The Flaming Lips.

2011-11-23T05:22:00.000-08:00

'Lo all.

I usually don't post if I have a big night out, which is why I haven't posted for a while. Benders are bad, children. Real bad.

So I last wrote after Harvest. Not much to report, really. Spent a few days in the sun reading Tess of the D'Urbervilles when it wasn't pouring rain. Loving holidays so far.

On Wednesday, Aiden finished exams, so naturally we got trashed. Hit James Squire's, then Bieros for lucky dip beers (stout... bugger) and 14% ciders. After realising the Exford was closed (and see T Benoosh randomly) found ourselves at Ness's arguing about music. Walked back to college with Aiden, trying not to disturb too many possums.

Next day, had a lot of free food to get rid of a hangover, then went to the Palace for the Flaming Lips. Jesus. Pond opened, and Paisley really does dance like Cameron Vale. They played a lot of new stuff, but we still got Annie Orangetree. Looking forward to their new album.

Before they came on stage, Wayne Coyne popped up and gave a disclaimer, stuff about strobes and such. Never had that before. Then the band emerged from a giant psychedelic video of a woman's genitals (not even kidding) before Wayne rolled onto the crowd in his space bubble. Again, not even kidding. Imagine the Beardman completely stoned wearing a furry thing around his neck strolling around a moshpit in a plastic ball. Then they fired the confetti cannons and two dozen giant balloons dropped onto the audience while the band played She Don't Use Jelly and naked ladies were dancing on the big screen. One hell of a start.

The rest of the set was pretty good, at one stage the guitarist put down his modded double neck (it's now just a single neck) and started playing his iPhone (apps for everything these days). Wayne was popping gigantic balloons filled with confetti with his guitar. Side of stage were hot girls in Wizard of Oz outfits dancing. We got The Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Song, Worm Mountain, See The Leaves, Race For the Prize, and a new one (apparently from the Neon Indian EP?) as well as a Sabbath cover. At the end of the main set there was this little noisebox that reacted to light, so Wayne was waving that and a flourescent lantern around making screaming noises. Dude in the crowd in front of us had a crab hat. And they finished with Do You Realize???, using soooo much confetti. Jesus.

Next time they tour, I advise everyone to go and catch the Flaming Lips. Trust me.

So, after all that, Ness and I caught the last tram to Puggs after avoiding potential meat cleaver psychos at the 7/11, then were almost rejected from Puggs by the new bouncer until Jake and Cara spilled out and distracted him. Made it inside to wish Tom Garry a happy birthday and singalong to some Green Day and Oasis (part of me dies every time this happens, which is why I'm usually too drunk to care). After pizza, the girls decided to keep going, so we all found ourselves on the South Lawn in the middle of Melbourne Uni. There was possum catching, races, and swordfights with Aiden's crutches. Shenanigans.

Friday was a bit quieter, caught Pond with Aiden once again. Opener was ScotDrakula (sp?), who were Black Lips/Sex Bob-omb shouty hipster rock, then Ancients which had a sorta Sonic Youth sound until the singer came in, which sort of ruined it. Pond themselves did pretty much the same set they did before, Sandman (one of the new ones, I think?) was insane though, and Paisley seems to have taken some ideas from the Flips with shooting confetti at the crowd. At one stage Aiden and I spotted someone in shiny gold spandex, who turned around and was a dude with a large moustache. Only in Brunswick?

Made it home fine, jumped on the train back to Sale the next morning after it was delayed half an hour. Caught up with the family, then got a lift with Pat through the rain to Bernice's. That was an interesting night, lots of drinking games and Rage, which is always good. Haven't caught up with Dayno, Emma or Cumpster in far too long either.

Next day, made my way home, got to drive around a bit, then the grandparents and Annie and her mum dropped in for dinner. Siblings delighted in finding someone else to help them pick on me, and Annie and I yelled a lot at Fraser about finishing high school. Business as usual. That night the Beardman showed off his new toy and we argued about music (and probably bored Fraser).

Morning after, checked out Diana and PD's new place in Wurruk overlooking a lake. Very nice place. They're doing well, which is good. Then some wandering around Sale after chips with the horde, which included pool at the Star and laughing at the engrish in the 2 dollar shop. That afternoon the Doyles and Travis dropped in (and I got kicked out of the spare room, hurm).

Then suddenly I was back on the train to the city, had a good chat with Nemo on the way to Traralgon, almost fell asleep somewhere around Garfield though. Back in Hawthorn, shenanigans were afoot for Woosh's birthday/end of exams party. I was enjoying a red outside when people started dropping in, then we played some fris in Terebithia. Somehow Collo had found half a dozen pairs of baggy fluro hippy pants. This terrified everyone walking past, especially when the fris was thrown at them.

Back to 102, Angus and I cleared the place up, then people slowly began arriving. We got very hammered. The shish and smoke machine were unleashed for the first time in a couple of months. Then we moseyed over to Nevermind to wait for everyone to get kicked out of the Hawthorn, ran into Amy again, then went downstairs as Angus somehow got about thirty requests off the DJ. The bastard, no one should know all the words to Man in the Mirror by Michael Jackson. The Woosh was booted after dancing on a couch, poor bastard. Crazy stuff happening at the end in front of Wells and I towards the end.

I found my way back to 102 with Thomas, where a game of soccer was taking place, and after we put the Europeans to bed/Woosh passed out on the couch, Baz almost got into a punch on with one of the delivery men.

Today was not pretty. I moved onto Far From the Madding Crowd, and started watching Community (get amongst it). Tomorrow's James's innappropriate party. I believe I'll be going as a sex offender (will I have to shuffle though?).

Must stop doing these massive two week long breaks between posts, November's looking very sad. Oh well. I wonder if this'll make it to facebook, since the bastards fiddled with the settings.

Anyway. Hurm.

Crossposted.

Catchyas.

Harvest/Gathering/IndieSoundwave.

2011-11-12T05:53:00.000-08:00

'Lo all.

Before I hit the good stuff, first some catching up before I forget it all.

This might be the last post that is automatically chucked on facebook by RSS because facebook is retarded sometimes. I'm too lazy and forgetful to chuck it up myself, and to be honest I don't care enough. If you're a dedicated facebook reader (god help us all if you are) my crap can be found at http://updatesat10.blogspot.com/. I know it says updates at ten, but I've found it's more of a loose deadline.

So, picking up where we left off, finished that assignment I was planning, handed it in no problems. Celebrated with a couple of cheeky ciders with Angus, Wells and Bennett and some FPS Russia. Can't say I've done much else this week, though I did find a place to live on Riversdale rd that looks very interesting, and cheap. Only problem is, I can't do an inspection on the place because they don't have a free apartment until when it might be too late. Damn housing... Puggs was also pretty awesome this week, smaller crowd but four times the amount of cute girls, go figure.

Anyway, to business. This morning I rose bright and early, donned my Portishead shirt, and looking far too much like a hipster for my own good headed down to Werribee. Luckily, everyone else on the train was a hipster too.

Shuttlebus over to the festival, it was being held at the Werribee mansion, near the zoo. Nice place, really, there's a photo on facebook. Went in easily enough, no lines (not yet, at least), had a look around. On the main stage, a dj with a jazz big band and barbershop quartet were playing (only highlight was Baby on Board from the Simpsons, woah).

First thing I noticed was that almost all the trees in this place had random crap like picture frames or streamers or eyeballs dangling from them. Crap hanging off trees does not an art installation make. Some of the "lol so randum" stuff seemed to be put there just for hipsters to take photos of each other with (in sepia tint), which was stupid. The usual Sea Shepard/Amnesty/CLIMATE CHANGE HURR people were there, as well as a lot of "alternative" market stalls. I have never really understood this trend, as festivals and shows are not the sort of place where one buys stuff. Unless it's a camping festival and you need a beanie or sunnies or something.

The crowd was really interesting, there were a lot of teeny boppers, but not as many as I thought. Lots of people in their late twenties. I suppose they grew up with Portishead/Flaming Lips more than we Gen Yers did. Also, crowd was much, much bigger than I was expecting, and clearly this was the case with the organisers. As nice as the setup was with its "art installations" and "hidden secrets", there weren't enough places to get drink coupons or drinks, not enough food places, and definitely not enough toilets. I don't really want to hear from every girl in the pit about how they're busting but don't want to wait an hour in line for a toilet, thanks.

(it's great being a dude sometimes, even if I needed to go there were trees everywhere. bliss).

Back to the music, I suppose. After getting an overpriced spicy hotdog (a trend?), saw the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble. Very cool, and very strange seeing a euphonium and sousaphone. Worth checking out, band geeks.

After that, got roasted in the sun while flicking through the program. Turns out the old timetables were in there, which gave me some hope about seeing Mogwai after Portishead, but it turns out they changed it.

The main stage lineup was pretty broad, there was a jazz band, a brass band, a funk band, then an art rock band, an alt folk band, indie rock (how I hate that term), then the second best trip hop group ever. Compared to the other main stage, which was pretty much all rock apart from Death in Vegas. Didn't go over to the second stage much at all, sadly.

The Family Stone (minus Sly?) were alright, I suppose. The mixing wasn't kind to them, the trumpet solos kept getting lost and the only way I knew one was occurring was from the big screen. Their most popular song was the one featured in Shrek. I suppose this worked for Joan Jett at Falls. They lost me when they started shouting about Occupy and the 99%.

While they were performing, some balloons were floating up from behind the mansion. Turns out there was a wedding going on at the zoo, felt kinda sorry for them since not very far away at all was a four-stage music festival going on...

Went into the crowd proper after refueling on overpriced sugarless Pepsi (the alternative, un-sugarless Coke or beer, would mean waiting two hours and more money. Festivals, honestly...) to catch TV on the Radio. Grinspoon, classic Silverchair and Karnivool were getting piped out, which was a little amusing. Saw a girl in bare feet carrying her boots around in the mosh, very strange.

TV on the Radio put on a pretty good show, they're a lot more energetic live than they are in the studio. I like their stuff, but not enough to dig deeper, and now I'm thinking I should. Haven't given their new album a spin yet. Opened with Halfway Home, which was excellent, and closed with an absolute rager of Wolf Like Me (reminded me of Search and Destroy at BDO, so much fun as a singalong). I did like Tunde Adembimpe fiddling around with his vocals with a couple of delay and phaser pedals attached to his mic stand. During Repetition the requisite singlet-and-fake-tan douchebags kept trying to crowdsurf (really trying, bless their hearts), but settled with a three man high shoulder stack.

Somehow I ended up ten rows from the fence before Bright Eyes started. I do not know much Bright Eyes, so there's always that little bit of guilt that someone who really loves them should be in your spot. Still. Had a chat to some older women who wanted to do obscene things to Connor Oberst, and 50ish year old dude who loved the National and told me to check out the Felice Brothers. Huh. As the crowd grew again, I had flashbacks to Angus and Julia Stone at Falls. You'd think a folky, lyrical alt-countryish band would have a fairly chilled crowd, even if it is mostly teenage girls. I hoped it would. Funnily enough, this occured while Angus and Julia Stone were featured in a sepia-tinted ad on the big screens about saving the coral reefs (followed by a similar ad featuring a talking fish...). Saw Clive Deamer, Portishead/Radiohead's touring drummer (he likes head, doesn't he, the poor bald bastard). Little bit of a fanboy moment.

So Bright Eyes came on, Connor Oberst looks like a wrinkly 18 year old (isn't the dude approaching forty or something?), and he seemed slightly crosseyed. Girls were swooning everywhere. His setup was interesting though, two drumkits, slide, shedloads of keyboards and a trumpeter. Had no idea what I was in for.

Turns out it wasn't the worst girl-oriented blind set I've been in. However, the band did suffer from Cloud Control syndrome, where it looked like the moment a song would turn really awesome just sort of petered out and went back to gentle altpop crap. Hurm. Girl behind me was singing every word, she was there with her mum. I did like all the lyrical references to Greek myths and stuff, but I don't think the audience would know who Sisyphus was, nor would they look the story up. Rest of the lyrics seem very, very angsty. Meh. The poor guitarist's lead kept falling out, little funny. Saw a flugel horn (WOAH), the guitarist from Tripod in the crowd, and Wayne Coyne watching from side of stage (MORE WOAH BECAUSE HE SAW US STARING AND WAVED!).

After the set finished, moved up to third row behind the barrier. Right behind two tall guys looking after their girlfriends (read, immovable). Damn. Chatted to a guy who was trying to light his cigar (yeah, I know), he turned out to be a bro. He's looking forward to seeing Justice at Festy Hall, and is mad about the National. Once his girlfriend left we were roaring the songs. Did like that they were piping Gimme Shelter, and had a camera following them onstage beamed up to the big screen (cue people behind us "hey, that mansion they're in front of looks just like the mansion behind the stage!")

Excellent set, very similar to Falls and very heavy on the High Violet stuff, which I'm cool with as it really is a brilliant album. Sadly, that meant less stuff from Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers (I did want to hear Murder Me Rachel even if they don't like playing The Cardinal Song anymore...). I forgot how funny the band can be between songs, they were joking about annoying the rhinos once they finished their set because they have access all areas passes. Towards the end, during Terrible Love, Matt jumped into the crowd, taking the microphone with him. He got pretty far too, judging by how much lead the roadie had to give him. This would have been awesome if some drunken douchebag hadn't stepped in front of us just at that second.

Chilled out waiting for Portishead on the barrier, life is good. Chatted to a few people who'd been waiting so long for them. Then, bam.

Can't believe I'm writing about a Portishead show. Very creepy videos going on in the background, first of all. Definitely added to the whole thing, especially the manipulations of the live footage (as in, what was happening in front of you being Persephone'd). Setlist is pretty similar to what they've been doing lately, so again, not much from their self-titled, which is disappointing as I'm a sucker for Elysium/Half Day Closing/Only You/All Mine/Humming/the other half of the album that they did not play. During Machine Gun (which was incredible), they flashed up images of Tony Abbott shooting lasers from his eyes. Hilarious. Their big finish was We Carry On, which had this awesome instrumental bit towards the end. After taking a swig of beer, Beth jumped down from the stage (OMG) and ran over to shake hands and hug people (OMG!!!). So, I can now die happy knowing that Beth Gibbons shook my hand, however briefly. She's always so shy (cf recent performance on Fallon, she did not look at the camera once). So that was pretty awesome. Then, since I stuck around instead of going straight to the Flaming Lips, a roadie chucked me a setlist. Brilliant. It's now up on my wall.

I am seeing the Flaming Lips on Thursday, and I was exhausted, so I was in no real rush. Saw some strippers (I mean, burlesque performers) in the circus tent, and caught a bit of Holy Fuck's set. I think if they tour again they'd better have a sideshow. Wandered over to the other stage, since the only way in is through a single gate there was a huge crowd, but I did see (from a great distance) Wayne Coyne strolling around on top of the crowd in his plastic bubble, and heard Worm Mountain. So that was awesome. Also picked up Portishead's limited edition single (on vinyl, because I'm weird like that) on the way out.

Shuttle and train home were quiet, if packed, and now I'm home and it's empty. Internet's playing up, it's taken me an hour to put up fifteen photos, but oh well.

Tomorrow... sleep. No idea what to do after that.

Crossposted.

peace.

Subzero Fun.

2011-11-07T05:30:00.000-08:00

'Lo everyone.

Honestly cannot believe that it's November, and my holidays start tomorrow. So good.

So I haven't been up to a lot, really. It hit the pointy end of the semester far too fast.

Finished all my assessments except one that's due tomorrow night that I've started and planned out. Oh yeah. Even all the journal entries. Like a boss. I might have wimped out a bit with the last journalism assessment, just got a couple of interviews with Swinburne student union/amenities association people (who hate each other, funnily enough), but I'm only aiming for a pass, and a pass I shall get.

In other news, Puggs week before last for Emily's, we had a good crowd of our people, even if it was usual stuff. Too much queen saving though. The girls left halfway through for Billboards, so we kept going, ended up in Incy's til it shut, then watching cartoons at college. Left about 4 since Manthony and Ness were falling asleep (through classic Rugrats!), and once again Denny and Pat were spooning on my couch (...well, maybe just sharing them), much to the horror of Angus and Baz the next morning.

Had a quiet weekend where I ploughed through some work, then a final week that involved a lot of procrastinating. I'd forgotten how good I was at that. Had to miss Puggs, but made up for it the night after, once I'd handed in three things. 102 and co. got absolutely trashed at the Union bar, after Woosh and Angus chugged a bottle of wine each (no, really. It was spectacular(ly gross)). Fairly amusing too, I felt kinda sorry for the European girls as they weren't being left alone. Interesting crowd at union parties, really. They had a hipster jazzrock (post-avant-jazz-core?) band with the prerequisite pair of hipsters dancing all "carefree"/awkwardly in front of them. Once we got back home Woosh and Angus had a wrestle in front of some American visitors after some Elton John karaoke, and we ended up with knees going through a wall and a door, and a brilliantly smashed mirror. Well done those men.

Next day, off to St Kilda to catch all three Back to the Future films at the Astor with Annie. It was pretty crazy, there was a Delorean fully kitted out (WITH A HOVERBOARD) out the back, and a costume competition which featured a guy with Nike Air Mags and a pair of Libyans in a cardboard kombivan with an RPG. Awesome.

Films were good, of course. They made a big deal out of it being the first time they'll be shown one after the other in 4k (... even though it's a worldwide thing for the Bluray release or something). You do pick up on a lot of little background things when you see them on a huge screen. Very good films, shame on you if you've never seen them before (*coughanguscough*).

Anyway, Annie and I made it back to Alfred st, then Wellsy dropped in sniffing after some of Angus's supplies. I crashed on the floor, then about 4am the rest of the household arrived home with the American guests. They were hammered. I believe there was a fris sesh on the street outside, and Woosh and Bennett were squabbling with the bread delivery dude at 5am. Poor Annie had to be up before 8 to go paintballing. Lol.

I've spent far too much time in the last two days in the library, though now that I've only got one more thing to finish I'm chilling out more. The weather is fantastic, and since we fixed our porch up (read, moved the exercise thingy), it's now possible to sit in the sun and study. So good. Christ I'm going to be so lazy this summer.

Also, despite my poor finances (eating cardboard, etc), got tickets to the Flaming Lips sideshow, and will definitely be checking out Pond the night after in their own headline show in Brunswick. Plus Cameras is finally coming to Melbourne. Oh yeah, and there's that festival in Werribee on Saturday with Portishead and the National and TV on the Radio and such. No biggie (well, slight biggie, since it's in Werribee and trains have to stop for maintainence early...). Found a pair of Massive Attack live sets (one partial one from last year with video, and one from 1998 (!!!)). Been playing them a lot.

So yeah, apart from the usual Thursday night rampage at Puggs, I'm hoping the rest of this week will be fairly quiet (he says hopefully).

Jesus... November.

Crossposted.

peace.

Get Found.

2011-10-25T05:28:00.000-07:00

'Lo everyone.

Almost two weeks. Not the biggest gap between posts. Still, since three people have called me on it, I guess I'd better get back onto it.

Haven't posted since just after Salefest, hell. My memory's pretty awful, I suppose I tricked you all when I was posting daily. Oh well, let's see how we go.

I don't remember much of Puggs week before last, apart from the fact that I was there. Yep.

On Friday I headed out for Cameron's birthday, that man has grown a very, very impressive beard since the last time I saw him four months ago. Met up with Aiden and Jake, found a very classy Japanese restaurant (huge line to get in) which had amazing food. Tried sake as well. Strange that it's warm. We took Cameron to the brewhouse across the road and he sampled a few different beers. Turns out he's a guinness man, wouldn't have picked that. Did an Exford run as well, I think?

This week has been ever so much, warming up for end of semester assignments. I have to motivate myself, getting far too lazy, looking forward to the holidays. Maybe not as much as the last lot, but still, four and a bit months of summer and living in the city with nothing to do (until I find a job...). Anyway. Uni and that (AND THAT!).

I'll be honest, I'm sick of critical thinking, once you get the hang of the week's concept you just smash it and then you're stuck in class for twenty minutes til they move onto the next bit. Professional Communication lectures are bloody useless, this week since the lecturer was late the backup guy decided to show "funny" youtube clips. Waste of time.

Did do an assessment in class for that though, smashed that too. Watch a cheesy Matthew McConaughey clip, rubbish on about it for three and a bit pages, pretty easy. I suppose I still have vestigial exam skills, in that under pressure I can fill up a page with crap quickly if I really need to. Falling behind on the media journal thingy though, which is bad. My plan for this week is to have all of them finished and a plan on the other two essays done, then I can focus on the group assessment and prepare for that. Then get everything else done in one big heap like last semester.

This week has been slow, I suppose. Puggs last week was good, I recall. ET believes Jake and I are now "part of the family". God help us, I'm a regular. Usual shenanigans, until suddenly a wild Denny, Emily and Matt rock up. Cool.

Next morning (well... lunchtime, but that's morning for me), catch up with Hayley over a coffee, then meet up with Denny and Matt in the city, have a look at the Occupy Melbourne protests (I'm sorry, but we have it pretty good here. Unlike in the States we DO have a good healthcare plan, we DO have an effective student loan thing, and we DON'T have a financial crisis to the extent they do. Stop bloody whinging you dirty hippies). Had a browse in the clean new Missing Link (SOOO tempted by a Queens of the Stone Age self titled), moseyed up to Thousand Pound as I felt like a toastie and getting out of the cold, then Matt left so Denny and I headed to the casino. There's a maccas in there, did not know that. Useful to know.

Anyway, we wasted some time shooting stuff at Galactic Circus until Jake and Pat arrived, then we went nuts, driving cars and shooting zombies and such. Shame they got rid of the pinball machines. After that, headed to Cho Gao for very, very heavy drinking after dropping Denny's bag off at Alfred st. We played the 4chan drinking game, which Pat had on his phone. Bad idea, I think. We need real cards, first of all. Once cheap jugs finished we moseyed over to the Exford for more drinking and enjoying the superb jukebox they have.

Somehow Denny, Pat and I made it back to Alfred st alive, they crashed on the couch together (how romantic). Fairly quiet weekend after all that, except for the hangover.

So far this week I've made a start on my assignments, still don't know what the hell I'll do for journalism, but we'll see how we go. Angus, Barry and Boxy did a raid on Toorak and Kew during hard rubbish night. So much better in the city. We got five desktops, seven monitors, two old clear iMacs, a wireless router, two dvd players, an xbox with Halo still inside, a set of golf clubs that's only missing the putter, and a walkman. Yeah. Shame pretty much none of them work, though Baz's Abu Shanking the computers into something we can play Age of Empires on, he just needs a Windows disc (or install program, no IDEA how he could acquire that...).

Also enrolled in next year's course, I'm doing communications and journalism as minors. Because that will definitely get me a job. Not looking forward to Writing Fiction as an assessable, folio class at all, but Cinema Studies might be fun.

For the rest of the week, if I survive Angus going nuts in Woosh's absence/Baz going on a murderous rampage because of above, Puggs and heavy drinking Thursday then working a lot. Which to be honest is pretty standard, except I'll be drinking more and working harder. Meh. Bring on the end of the semester.

That was a long post. Cheers to you if you finished it. I'd say I won't leave things for another fortnight, but I don't want to jynx myself.

Hurm.

Crossposted.

peace.

Salefest again.

2011-10-12T05:35:00.001-07:00

'Lo all.

I've been busy this week, otherwise this'd be up earlier.

So. Pretty slow week of uni, a little bit of rushing around. Can't recall many great adventures either, so I'll just skip straight to the weekend.

Friday's close enough? Headed into the city, tried to get a pair of interviews and got sheparded towards emailing a media relations person. Bastards. Saw the Vasco Era in Brunswick (OH GOD SO MANY HIPSTERS), and they were very loud for 130pm.

Next morning, drove back home with Steve, not a bad ride cept when we lost maccas on the way. Get home, the house is quiet, run into Kevin on my way out then get a phone call off a freshly woken up Fraser. I warned him not to come out.

Anyway, meet with the droogs in the chicken shops, have some delicious chicken shop chips, then we raided the bottleo. Two slabs and something nice each should do for six of us.

We headed to Pat's and proceeded to get smashed early through a game of boxhead. We were a little messy when we made it to Annie's and met the girls, who were still doing some makeup. So, off to the Star for beer and watching a band, caught up with Cheezy, saw some Bananas in Pyjamas and a lot of either overly made up girls or people who should probably not leave the house wearing so little. Since it was pyjama theme, Denny, Patrick and I went as pirates.

Went to the Gippy after that, I think? Had another beer with Cheezy but compared to last year it was empty. So, to Jack's for more drinking, saw a lot of familiar faces. I think we headed to the Star again after that? Things get a little blurry.

I've been having flashbacks for the last few days, I only remember bits and pieces really. Last year was a lot more fun, seemed to be busier? I don't know. Some absolute shenanigans though. I recall running into Emily, who'd made it down just in time. Had a chat to Meg and went Hayden hunting with Pat in Kas. Spent a lot of time in Ringers' outside bit catching up with Maddie Murphy. Annie caught up with Jayden, as I remember. There was a punk band playing in the Outback Bar that weren't bad. Ran into British and shouted an awful lot, somehow there's a photo of us up? Got caught by Alison and dragged onto the dancefloor. Brett Glover's band played Chilli Peppers.

Anyway, walked someone home to Annie's (might have been Alison?) with Meg, met Jordan's boyfriend, then moseyed home about two or three. Somehow still awake at 6, painful.

Next day, slept through everything, phone was refusing to work, it was raining outside and my bag was at Sam's, who was now in Melbourne. Balls. Somehow got to the station with twenty minutes to spare, and met Emily and Denny, got back to Melbourne feeling pretty munted.

This week was pretty painful, I'm a week behind in my media journal articles, I can't seem to get an interview for this thing due on Friday, and I had an in class essay today. I smashed the last one though, thankfully.

Lot of shenanigans going on here at 102 as well. Today, for instance, I was happily working on this article (... and playing solitaire) on the couch when Woosh, Bennett, Collo, and then Angus walk in, and all start working out. Wtf.

Tomorrow's going to be fun, going to check out a place in Carlton in the morning after banging on a few doors at the Port of Melbourne Corp's building, then uni and such, then Puggs because I believe I'll need a drink. Then after that, clean up article (and PRAY I have the interviews) then Cameron's in the city. Woo.

Crossposted.

Catchyas.

To Hell With Good Intentions.

2011-10-02T03:41:00.000-07:00

'Lo all.

Welp. Uni and that. Thrilling stuff.

Seems I've passed the first six weeks, which is a good sign, cept now it's going to get trickier. Oh well.

Hazy memories of earlier this week. Tom came down to the city on Sunday night, Isaac, Pat, and I caught up with him over a few games of pool and beers which was good. He's doing well, though maybe Canberra's starting to get to him. Definitely come back in the summer, man.

The Bearded Man dropped in Tuesday, which was good, caught up with him and Travis over a burger, and he tried some of Baz's beer (seal of approval there). Headed out after that and got fairly munted, as I recall.

Pretty slow week at uni, not going to lie. Thursday was slightly more exciting, headed to RMIT for a radio thing. Teacher dude was half an hour late, and despite apparently being "full" only six people showed up. Eventually, dude did show up, and turns out it was one of Bec's friends. Not that he recognised me, even though we'd met at least three times beforehand.

Anyway, brief crash course in radio conventions, then I had to leave before we got to the good bit. Back at Swinburne, got my second journalism assignment (Port of Melbourne Corporation? daaaamn...), then slept through critical thinking. Didn't go out that night, which was a good thing as I may have interrupted things when I got home.

Friday was alright, more radio stuff, Bernice and I did a twenty minute show which didn't crash and burn. We went for a group lunch at Melbourne Central, where conversation was dominated with relationship issues once we finally found a table. Then more theatre sports type games which to be honest I have no patience for, though I suppose I understand why we were doing them. Had a drink at Thousand Pound after, then headed home as it started pissing down. Damn Melbourne weather.

Yesterday some of the horde rocked up to watch the footy, we got heavily intoxicated and might have terrified poor Baz and Christina. The game itself was enjoyably close until the last quarter, where Geelong finally got away. I guessed that though. Kids seemed to like 102, especially the city bike. Showed them all Nevermind, but it was pretty meh since half of it was shut because of the weather. I don't go out in Hawthorn much on Saturdays. Meh.

Angus arrived home at about 2, screaming. By this time, everyone had left except Pat, who had crashed on the couch. Jesus, the next hour and a half was at once hilarious and terrifying. There were ice buckets poured on heads, tomato sauce spread on nipples, and copious amounts of nudity. After Angus decided to go for a longboard down the street, the police decided to drive past. He panicked, sprinted home, turned out all the lights and locked himself in the bathroom. Meanwhile, Baz, Pat, and I had to deal with the curious police officers who were shining torches into the house. We then murdered Angus.

This morning was painful, not going to lie. My alarm clock went off at about 5am (thanks Jordan and Naomi), then Hayden and Jake rocked up before I was fully awake (sorry about that). House was cleaned up pretty quickly though.

So yeah, not a bad weekend, I suppose. Just had a huge steak that Baz cooked on his new barbecue on the porch.

While I remember.

Blessed - ***
Cheesy and mildly predictable, but definitely a downer film. That was some crazy Blixa Bargeld screaming at the end as well. Could tell Christos Tsolkias has a hand in writing it during one scene involving a Greek dude and exploitation. Still, not a bad film.

Source Code - ****
Just when you think it's a crappy ending it suddenly makes you think. Enjoyable film, lots of twists, much like Duncan Jones' previous film Moon. Definitely worth seeing at least once. Some plotholes that you acn't really think too much about but still.

I think I'm caught up now. Been watching a lot of Daria still, not sure what I'll do after that. Maybe get Community.

This week will be interesting. Gotta struggle through it, then heading home Saturday morning to see the family and get embarrassingly drunk for Salefest, as well as celebrate Meg and Alison's birthdays. Should be good fun.

Crossposted.

Catchyas.

Parklife + I Am the Resurrection.

2011-09-24T06:16:00.000-07:00

'Lo all.

I've been sick as a dog this week. Like, painfully writhing and sweating in bed, barely able to eat or drink, babbling in tongues, head spinning around, puking green slime, swearing at priests...wait...

But in all seriousness, flu sucks. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday I was in bed all day after feeling pretty bad for the rest of the week. The only advantage to this that I can see is spinning through Boardwalk Empire, Ghost in the Shell, and two seasons straight of Daria.

I was in such Dire Straits I told Angus if I was still unable to make myself get up properly on Saturday I'd give him my Parklife ticket. Not a good day, though he was hopeful. Did manage to drag myself to the couch to watch Collingwood almost get beaten last night though.

Fueled purely on rage, this morning I woke up and took a buttload of painkillers, ate a healthy breakfast, and made my way to Parklife after stocking up on soothers and sculling an energy drink. Felt good until I saw my first "festival crew". Oh yeah. "Those" people. It is almost summer, time to break out the fake tan and short shorts so short (say that ten times) that nothing is left to the imagination (this is a good thing when girls wear them only, not guys. hint hint).

Anyway, since I couldn't get onto any of the Americans, wandered in after listening to an insanely inane conversation occurring behind me (it did not help that I'd been watching Daria for two days straight). That whole losing faith in humanity thing springs to mind...

So, through the gate, have a look around, grab my DFA79 tshirt. Weird set up, and I only saw one map. Stages all had stupid names. Main arena was cool but no one amazing was playing there, two smaller stages around the back, then a tiny stage behind the main arena. As well as that, there was a pirate ship stage hidden behind an ambulance, a tree, and a hill. Stupid idea.

Saw a bit of Naked and Famous, who I will admit aren't bad live. Wandered down to the little stage and watched Gold Fields. Pretty good, so young though. Very... triple j? sound. Which isn't surprising, considering who picked them up.

I should also note, at this stage, that since it was after twelve and I hadn't had a beer for a week I believed it was time for a beer. It cost ten bucks (one of them you could get back later). Rubbish. This was a can of Boags, nothing fancy.

Anyhoo, kept strolling, Yacht Club DJs had half a dozen people dressed as aliens dancing on stage, and when they began a dubstep track a yip yip alien from Sesame Street emerged. That is quality.

Almost as funny was the lukewarm crowd reaction to Kimbra, while a news crew covered her. She is the "it girl" of the moment, as The Age website reminds me at least once a week. Stop that, you're showing your age.

8 Bit Love were hidden away on the pirate ship, the poor bastards. They played the same show they did last time I saw them except with a little less enthusiasm. About half a dozen hipsters were dancing like hipsters in front of them, occasionally rolling down the hill.

Caught up with Ness and her friends after this, had a brief chat then suddenly, oh. my. god.

Death From Above 1979 put on the loudest, funniest, craziest, most intense show I've ever seen. It was brilliant. Favourite band I've seen live by far, and I've seen a lot of bands. It was the sort of show where everyone (except a couple of girls who must have been there for the boyfriend or something who gave us greasies every time they got bumped into) was there for the same reason. You could mosh or dance, everyone screaming every word. You might bash into some dude but he'd just put his arm around you and sing along with you. Loved the band's huge finishing jam session, culminating in Sebastien throwing his snare at the rest of the kit. Brilliant versions of Dead Womb and Blood on Our Hands. Romantic Rights was the same as Coachella, but he finished it properly. And yes, I damn well enjoyed roaring You're a Woman I'm a Machine's chorus.

*cough* I gush too much sometimes (c/f Grinderman in this year's BDO review...), but really, that was worth price of admission alone. Just fantastic.

Had some time to burn before Digitalism, so back to the little stage and caught Flux Pavilion, who Angus and the Americans love. And yeah, he was good, but I did not expect a hype man shouting "COME ON" every thirty seconds. So that kind of messed it up a bit, but still, you can't really say no to dubstep when it's done live (yes, I know, "live").

Refueled on an overpriced and slightly cold burger, checked out a bit of Crystal Fighters, then caught the end of Example (right when he played the only songs of his I've heard). He seemed very excited, even if the backing band did not. Wolfgang Gartner seemed to be only playing other people's songs, disappointingly. I wanted to hear Firepower.

Digitalism were good fun once they got going, they played a new single that I didn't know then went straight into Zdarlight. Two Hearts and Idealism were highlights, but the best part was by far a rework of Pogo where they seemed to discover the subwoofer. Jesus. Surprised people in Eureka tower did not feel that. Brilliant.

Watched half of MSTRKRFT's set, but I'd seen enough JFK in Death From Above's set. The best part was seeing a dude dressed as Gumby (like, full costume) doing The Sprinkler. Lot of festival costumes around, did see a Hunter S Thompson and grabbed a sneaky photo of him before my phone died (should I see to a replacement camera?).

Went around to the other stages, Gossip was not my kind of thing (except for Jolene, that transcends just about everything, including preaching about homophobia). Nero was packed with BRO type douches at the tiny stage, which made moving difficult when all you wanted was a look from the back. They sounded like dubstep (well duh, I hear you say). I imagine all the fake tanned girls exploded when they played Promises.

While strolling past a tent, I noticed a sign that said they'd give you a dollar for every can you pick up. People were walking in with handfuls. Jesus, I thought, that's brilliant. Five minutes later, made $35, which paid for the shirt, the beer, and the food. Five more cans and it could have paid for the cloak room and the train ticket. Not a bad idea really, especially if you have nothing to do between sets (and drinks are stupidly expensive).

Anyway, saw the start of Lykke Li, she's very attractive but her music isn't really my scene (gothic indie pop. not a promising start). Decided to say screw it, and watched twenty thousand bogans jump up and down in front of a large rubber duck waiting to yell Barbara Streisand. A Trak I'd seen before, and he was pretty good at Falls. But yeah, nothing mind blowing. Lauren randomly walked past, so I caught her and met Jess and Easy. They were pretty munted, or at least Jess was, and were on their way out after rescuing a German girl. So Easy and I headed home a little early, which meant we only got the last of the rugby crowd instead of getting the Barbara Streisand crowd of pinged out bogans.

Unfortunately, yes, this did mean that I missed out on seeing twenty thousand bogans yell Barbara Streisand. No doubt the buildup, from what I heard, was excruciating for them, however, I do fully intend on joining the Salefest bogans and yelling it repeatedly at every second bloody pub in two weeks time... shut up.

Now I'm home, walked in on Baz and a now sick Angus watching Jurassic Park (YES!) 3 (NO!), and just rapped all of Clint Eastwood when it popped up on rage. Excellent.

So yeah, this week has been pretty awful, really, but today was good fun. Next week, back into the grinder for six more weeks. Probably nothing too exciting, but I've been wrong an awful lot. The only tricky thing will be trying to wriggle out of journalism on Thursday for the radio training thing. We'll see how that goes. Oh, and some douchebag's coming to visit from Canberra.

Crossposted.

peace.

All I Need.

2011-09-18T04:49:00.000-07:00

'Lo everyone.

I really didn't intend to turn this fine (cough) publication into a weekly thing, honestly. I just don't have enough adventures worth writing about anymore. Or at least not daily.

Plus I'm really, really lazy.

Anyway. Picking up where we left off on Tuesday, met Bec in the city for coffee supplies and breakfast, then a pretty slow day at uni. Baz made some quesadilas, and Shalee and Emily came around for a few drinks. After Angus arrived home with a dozen of his mates (all celebrating a birthday and ridiculously hammered), we hit Nevermind and ran into Amy and Krystal. A little random. After a game of pool against ze Germans at the Glenferrie, Emily crashed on my floor. Too drunk for a Tuesday.

Next day, crap pancakes, more uni. Getting sick of having to do theatre sports while hungover.

Anyway, then suddenly it was Thursday. Had to interview a random for the inclass assessment in journalism, my cunning plan to talk to the people in the student union office pretty much blew up in my face when someone followed me, then asked the first question and managed to get a far more interesting story than I did. Bastard.

After a brief, four hour break, went to critical thinking and smashed the test. Like, finished in about 40 minutes. Twiddled my thumbs for ten minutes while watching everyone else out of the corner of my eye, then figured screw it. I'd answered everything and answered it damn well, it was time for a drink or five.

So, once more to Puggs, where the usual Melbourne Uni kid were there, and Jake, Pat and Emily all arrived, as did Agnik, which was a bit of a surprise. Not a bad night, I suppose. Got stupidly drunk. Don't remember the pizza at Incy's or the taxi home, nor did I remember to grab my jacket from the floor on the way out... damn...

Unfortunately, next day I practically died, surprise flu. So I finished the assessment for journalism (it isn't very impressive, but it's something), then passed out for a few hours. Same deal yesterday, watched the footy with Baz that night. Very thrilling and ultimately disappointing game.

Today, Angus walked in screaming (huge night on Chapel st, apparently), then some of ze Germans came round. They're all at Angus's mum's at Mt Eliza after hitting the beach, so I've got the house to myself. Feels good, actually, played a lot of Radiohead, and now I'm watching cartoons on the couch. Excellent Sunday, except for the flu crap.

Hopefully it'll be gone by Saturday, as that's Parklife. Got a week off to recover, which is fantastic. Gotta find something to occupy myself with, I guess, but still.

Crossposted.

Catchyas.

(bonus bit, dunno if this will show on facebook

Greenberg - **1/2
Reminded me of Ghost World, in that it's about a whole lot of awkward people who don't really end up doing much over the film. Not bad, but not amazing either.

pretty sure I watched another film too, but oh well, I'll remember. Also, Tom, Pi is Canadian, it'll have to wait til I find a real dvd player)

You're A Woman I'm A Machine.

2011-09-12T04:58:00.000-07:00

'Lo all.

Once again, I'm putting off my media thingy because I'm lazy.

What on earth happened this week. Honestly.

Sunday night I caught up with Claire, which was good, haven't spoken to her since her travels all over Europe.

Next couple of days were good fun.

On Thursday headed to Puggs with Bernice and Pat, had a drink with a freshly shaved and broken-ankled Aiden. Poor bastard. He's pretty much indestructible, despite how many times things have broken on him. At least this time he wasn't climbing on a crane... oh wait.

Friday I had a night in while everyone else headed to the footy, watched Geelong squish Hawthorn and injure Buddy. Baz was not impressed.

Next day, rugged up and headed to Bayswater to cover Woosh's preliminary final. Scary interviewing all the bogans. His team got absolutely smashed, 9 goals to nothing in the first quarter. Couple of good players though. So my project for this week is to write that up before Friday. Watched the Saints lose to Sydney at home that night over a few beers with Barry while Woosh went and drowned his sorrows.

Then yesterday, woke up early but missed the train still, got in line at the member's stand (which went all the way to Jolimont at least when I arrived), then joined Simon, Josh and his granddad at the MCG. They played Tame Impala over the speakers before the game, though that did little to improve how cold it was.

Game itself was excellent, after a shaky start. I mean, if you're eighty points up in a final, the other team is doing something really, really wrong. Afterwards, celebratory drinks and toasties at Thousand Pound Bend (sorry Bec) with Bernice and Jordan. Very interesting conversation. Wish the beer was cheaper though.

Today I've been lazy, slept through my first lecture so I went to the catchup one with Dean, tried not to fall asleep in the profcom one, and now I'm dawdling before I start this week's media thingy. Oh well.

Nothing particularly interesting going on this week yet, though next week is my week off and I intend to do only two things, which are drink and sleep. And, you know, head to Parklife to see Death From Above 1979 and Digitalism and 8 Bit Love and Nero and such.

(that rumour about Pearl Jam headlining the BDO next year better be right, and that rumour about Harvest getting cancelled better be wrong)

Crossposted.

Catchyas.

Child Bearing Hips.

2011-09-04T06:00:00.000-07:00

'Lo readers.

Yeah, yeah. Five for August, isn't that good. Can't believe it's September already.

So last weekend was fairly quiet compared to the one before that, caught up with Emily, watched some Black Books, got trashed, the usual.

This week has been fairly slow, we've actually got assignments that are due soon, and one that was due on Friday. I started and finished that on Friday. Oh yes. I honestly don't know how to do my journalism one though, seeing as I can't review a show, and it seems I missed out on Woosh's craziest game of football today. Hurm. I've got two weeks, I'll find something.

Tuesday 102 hit Nevermind after predrinking our way through a sixer of Belgian beer and two bottles of wine, and about thirty sausages. Angus knocked over a beer and sprinted downstairs before security could boot him out, and Bennett and Woosh almost got into a fight with a pair of douchebags. We got home around 3, chatted to Lauren and Wellsy for ages until Woosh and Angus came back with some new friends. Barry was not particularly impressed at them partying past 5am. Can't imagine why.

Next day hurt, especially when we had to perform in front of the class.

Got up way too early on Thursday and went to the city to line up outside Polyester for tickets to Meredith. There were so many hipsters waiting there, I saw at least two copies of Frankie. Amusing too that they dressed up so much to wait overnight. Anyway, the line went almost all the way to Swanston st, which wasn't good. Saw Sloane in the line, and Bec had some friends closer to the front, so she stuck with them and grabbed me a ticket just in case. Very lucky she did as well, as by the time I got within sight of the shop to grab a ticket for Aiden, they sold out. Very tense morning.

Thursday night I decided to skip the student union drinks to finish the profcom assessment (hurr), but as soon as I got home I got a call from Smellison and Jordan, so I headed to Prudence for a drink with them. Good to catch up. Also, not at Puggs for a week. When I got back, my roomies had just come back from the res ball, so I grabbed a suit jacket and joined them at Cheers (read, Ringers) for a drink before we figured it wasn't worth all the sixteen year olds and left. Wound up playing frisbee outside maccas at about 2am (until Bennett chucked Baz's frisbee into a drain, so he and Angus went up to the fourth floor and let the firehose loose again). Good night.

Friday was slow, headed into the city to meet George and Aiden, and George's new girlfriend Laura, who seems nice. Had a beer at the brewhouse place before heading to Richmond.

The first band, Kitchen Knife Wives, were alright, a little too predictable rock, but it wasn't like they sounded awful. Headed to the very front for the Fearless Vampire Killers, who definitely impressed. They had more of a retro sound, sort of like the Cramps, or Daijuku with vocals. Drummer was particularly entertaining as well.

The Vasco Era opened with Honey Bee, smashed the new single, and played the usual Hendrix/Beatles/Dylan covers. Crowd went off, except for some overly made up girls we kept getting pushed into. So much fun. Looking forward to their new album as well.

Next day, everything hurt, of course. Headed to the city again with Bernice, Annie and Amy, got seats in level one at the MCG, and watched Carlton miserably crap out in the second half to lose by way too much. Still. Next week is the important game. Feels good knowing I saw their first match of the season, and their last (finals don't count).

After that, Prudence once again, and my god the music! Strokes, Arcade Fire, BRMC, among others. Bartender liked my new Vasco Era shirt, was annoyed she missed out on the show. Jess, Jake, Shalee and Krystal all arrived later, so more drinking, then we went hunting for open toilets and "a place with a dfloor". Brief detour to maccas to commiserate with some Carlton fans, then off to Eurotrash. Crap music, but ten dollar jagerbombs... but ten bucks to get in... No, definitely not my sort of thing.

Off to Spleen to finish off with Jake, Bernice and Jess, had a beer, then they played Clint Eastwood (night=made), and Jess got knocked over by some sleazy dude, and got cut by a glass. So a hasty exit. Kindly security guard offered to boot him out for her though.

So yeah. Pretty meh week, really, but we're getting there. Next week, more Puggs, that's all I have planned at the moment.

Crossposted.

peace.

Just Ace.

2011-08-25T22:24:00.000-07:00

'Lo all.

So I haven't posted in a week and a bit, still alive and kicking though. No huge adventures, but a lot of medium sized ones that to be honest I'm surprised I can still remember.

Tuesday was alright, made some new friends in media, then didn't fall asleep analysing an ad for insurance for single mothers in profcom (that name sounds so lame, why do they keep referring to it like that...). Thursday was good fun, smashed journalism (the joys of habitually checking six news sites every hour or so seems to have paid off for the current affairs test), then a hectic and thrilling three hours of critical thinking.

As customary now, headed to Puggs, caught up with Aiden, had a chat to a few people about Falls (still on the fence, but might end up in Marion Bay again... don't know). Somehow during Ryan's set every person who was there early in the bar joined a massive circle and started singing, apparently that's never happened before. Ryan himself was smashed, and we encouraged his friend to chug a pint, which the proprietors didn't seem to like for some reason. Emily, Bernice, Shalee and Jake all arrived, we drunk more and more, headed to Incys for pizza, then taxied it home.

Next day, not a lot to do, but Aiden invited me to an eating competition he was in, down at Sandringham. It was between three guys, they had to finish a whole 18 inch pizza with everything on it. Aiden started slow and steady, one guy started fast but stopped quickly, and the third guy was eating two pieces at once until he puked, and was disqualified. He contested this by asking that if he ate his vomit too and finished the pizza, he'd still count as winning, right? Then he asked for a spoon. He lasted three spoonfuls of puke. Astounding. Was referred to as Spoony for the rest of the night. Aiden ended up losing to the other dude by about half a piece (and the bastard still got the pizza named after him), oh well. We sprinted back to the station to catch a train back into the city (missed one by a minute, annoyingly), then Aiden and I stumbled across the James Squire brewhouse on Russell st. Nice place. Had a couple more pints at the Exford, then headed home.

Saturday was quiet as well, Bec dropped in on her way through, had a coffee, then checked out my room, had to give her Children of Men and Pulp Fiction (WATCH. THESE. FILMS). That night, once more into the city, chatting about Game of Thrones with Pat and Jake in the brewhouse over pool, then to the Exford where we met Aiden and took almost complete control of the jukebox (Portishead? Tame Impala? On a pub jukebox?! Most excellent (also lololol)). I think after the fifth pint we were all fairly trashed, and since the place was almost empty we headed to Crown for giant cocktails. Once Jake was too drunk to be let back into the bar, Aiden went to a roulette table and won twenty bucks, and we somehow stumbled out and found Spleen. Yes, Aiden, I may have accidentally knocked my beer over. At least I wasn't dancing with a fat dude like Jake's brother.

We then decided to get some food as we got kicked out of Spleen, so Aiden decided to take a shortcut which was not a shortcut, and instead an alleyway that housed a sleeping homeless man. A little amusing. We went back and forth between the pizza place and McDonalds on Elizabeth st until the sun came up, watching children's cartoons and laughing at passerbys wandering out of Wobble. This included the "Wobble Wizard" (said so on his cape), and Batman. Hilarious.

The sun was up but apparently this is no guarantee for the toilets to be open, so after Jake left Pat and Aiden figured that Fed Square would be the safest bet. Since it was all locked, we watched the giant tv from a convenient tent. I don't think any of us have found the word "spatchcock" so funny before. Saw Annie's boyfriend randomly, he'd been at Wobble as well. Very odd. We had another hour to burn until the trains started up again, so we headed to Emily's as she was getting ready for work. I really do feel sorry for Anna's bathroom after Pat and Aiden were done with it. Grabbed a coffee off Bec on my way to the train, the pretty much slept all of Sunday.

Not much went on for the next few days, just getting through uni stuff. Tuesday night we had five European girls over drinking wine, you should have seen Angus and Woosh's faces. They all got back from the bar at 430am with some French guys, which was amusing.

Wednesday night was movie night, some of the Americans came over, watched The Beach, which is a lot slower than I remember it. So similar to Trainspotting, but not as good, especially the soundtrack.

Then last night, after almost dying in my three hour critical thinking marathon, headed to the city and caught most of Guthrie's set with Bec at Gertrude's, which seems like a nice place. Guthrie was the Tasmanian blues band from Falls, they haven't changed their shtick much in six months, though the lead singer shaved his beard. After them were The Stoics, who weren't bad for indie rockers. Lead singer was either really pretentious or really drunk, and somehow the fact that he managed to knock over a mic stand and a monitor points to the latter. It was funny when he bagged Kanye though. The bassist was kickarse, literally punching his pickups at one point, and there was one song where a beer bottle was used to play a guitar. They had a trumpet too. Tempted to check out more of their stuff.

After that, Thursday night at Puggs, there was a battle of the bands on, with the winner getting a free trip to Ireland. Apparently I missed the first band, who were really good, and the second band's only saving grace was an incredibly hot lead singer. Ploughed through $5 drinks and pizza at Incys while watching a guy try to steal six bottles of coke for a "Prosh week" challenge. Amusing.

So now it's Friday. Planning on getting down, as naturally, it is Friday. Dunno, waiting for people to get back to me. Today's been pretty dull, did my washing and (shockhorror) shaved, so now I look like a 12 year old girl again. Hurm. Probably should have thought this through better.

Been on a Grinspoon run lately, been stuck in my head (worth checking out Just Ace on Recovery, they were so young, funny when you think about what ended up happening to Phil Jamieson), but I just got the new Gotye album (among other things, thank you so much). So much stuff to get through, just found Wolf Parade's first album as well, dammit. A little annoyed I'm not at the HiFi watching 8 Bit Love and Regurgitator at the moment, but I might end up seeing the Gurge at Falls anyway... Iunno. Sold my ticket to the Jezabels as well, though if their new album ends up being awesome might be I'll regret that.

Anyway, this week, gotta actually do some work, first assignment's due on Friday (and I don't really know what to do, though it seems easy enough), then Vasco Era at the Corner, then writing a report on that for journalism. But that's next Friday. Hopefully there'll be some more adventures this weekend.

Crossposted.

Catchyas.

Fifth Time Lucky.

2011-08-15T05:20:00.000-07:00

'Lo all.

I'm calling this a warm up for the first "analytical journal piece" that I'm about to write for media. Sue me.

Anyway, directly where I left last week, headed to the city, met Jake and Emily, decided to check out Thursday nights at Puggs with Aiden and his people. I think it was a good choice, his uni mates are cool, the dude with a guitar played some crap that we could all sing along to (obnoxiously), cept he didn't finish (with Shout) til about 1am so I missed the last train home. After Aiden introduced us to Incys for pizza, jumped in a cab with Emily. Turns out it was the Cab of Wisdom, so we were treated to ten minutes of the cabbie's musings on life and relationships. He's been doing it in his cab for 13 years, apparently. Keep an eye out for him.

Spent Friday recovering.

Thank You For Smoking - ****
Got this off Baz, awesome film, cept Harvey Dent looks waaay too much like Jaime Lannister. Very, very amusing, moves pretty quickly, and the ending's pretty good too. I enjoyed how he got poisoned as well.

Saturday was fairly quiet as well, did my washing. Exciting stuff, un das. Woosh, Baz and I headed to the kebab place over the road and had a chat to the dude in there at midnight. Not sure why, guess I was hungry.

Next day, nothing to do since I was lazy, then trammed it down Swan St to the Corner. Nice place, really, smaller than I thought. Watched Damn Terran with Aiden while we waited for his uni mates to rock up, then DZ Deathrays put on the distortion and strobes show, which I enjoyed. Liking their new stuff, looking forward to the album as long as it isn't on cassette (!).

So this was the fifth time in two years I'd seen Children Collide, as I told Ness as we were waiting. They didn't disappoint, Johnny's shaved his head but still looks mean, if less like Kurdt. Was a row back from the barrier for most of the show getting squished with Aiden. He took a request for Amphibious when 90% of the audience started shouting for it, amusingly. He then had some requests of his own for the hecklers. He stage dived, let the audience play his guitar, and was generally a mental frontman, as we expected. Heath swore a lot. At one stage he jumped pretty much on my head, so I got taken back a few rows in the crush, then a circle of death started up. So that was fun. Once I got spat out at the end of Jellylegs I was right in front of a speaker, so my ears got blown out by the distortion from their last jam. Setlist wasn't bad, we got We Live in Fear but no Across the Earth, and still no Complacency No Vacancy.

Made it home alright, sore and deaf but pretty happy.

This morning hurt. Took me half an hour to get out of bed, and that was just to make sure my good alarm clock didn't go off and wake up the rest of the building. Media tute was alright, going over advertising and public relations, which is kind of interesting how they're all owned by such huge companies. Then a break for some subway, and headed to profcom in the fishbowl. I think I'm starting to dislike this place if only because the giant windows are so distracting. Still, it wasn't bad, we had the good lecturer, got to watch some suggestive ads and Star Wars. Subject material was stuff we'd done before, but still.

Get home, there's a buttload of Americans in 102 (who'd brought food) and there was streamers and balloons and crap everywhere. Turns out we were hosting a surprise birthday party. Cool, I suppose. Cept for the aforementioned media thing I have to read for, then write. So I didn't drink, might be heading to Parklife with Mike, popped some balloons, ate a lot of free food. Place is a mess, but we'll manage.

Tomorrow, media tute and journalism lecture. Should be good fun.

Crossposted.

Catchyas.

First Week Back.

2011-08-11T04:23:00.001-07:00

'Lo everyone.

Oh boy oh boy oh boy. Exciting stuff. Proper plot progression. Semester two. Get keen.

Anyway, after all the adventures I had last week, this week has been slightly more exciting, thank gawd. Keeps me distracted.

Sunday night 102 had an awesome dinner cooked by some German girls, who were very nice, then I tried to get some sleep before class the next day.

First up on a Monday morning is now Media in Australia, which actually seems like a lot of fun. It's mainly industry stuff, which is fascinating. Seireadan is in the lecture, which is good, someone familiar to bitch about stuff with. He seems to be moving up in the world, welcome to facebook.

Then a lecture in Professional Communication Practice, which despite having the coolest lecturer/convenor dude, seems to be pretty bland. It's probably the most overall useful thing I'll do, since it's all about preparation for business meetings and adapting to new environments (professionally), but meh, I'm not much of a public speaker. There were a lot of familiar faces in this lecture as well, which is helpful.

Next day, journalism lecture. This was the most interesting to me, and it definitely seems the most practical, as the lecturer hinted that we'd be filing reports in every tute. So a lot of writing. He's got a sense of humour though, which is good.

Then the media tute, and there were three ex-grammar people in the class, which was weird as hell. Met some new people, bitched about the footy, tutor seems alright.

That night we had the internationals come around, after a few rounds of beer pong with Angus's mates. We got pretty trashed. At one stage I was hanging with some Germans in the Hawthorn, then I remember Mcdonalds, then suddenly I was watching Angus, Woosh and Bennett screaming You're the Voice while sitting around the shish with some Swedish girls. Good night. Massive cleanup though.

Next day was the prof-com tute (that sounds so lame...), and we got made to group up and do random theatre sports skits. So much fun, having to do this with people you don't know, while hungover. Tutor reminded me of the contexts one I had last semester, we'll see how it goes. Wednesdays have historically been bad for me, going off Tuesday nights...

Anyway. Today was the end of my week, thank gawd, journalism tute in the afternoon, met a few cool people and talked a lot of music with a dude who interviews Melbourne bands for a community radio station. Very impressed. Tutor seems alright, though he looks a little like Saruman.

Then this evening, double critical thinking. Was very unsure about this subject, to be honest. Alice, one of the ex-grammar people, is in the lecture and tute with me, so I suppose there'll be some familiar faces here too. But yeah, very vague stuff about the difference between an argument and an explanation. Best part is, since I don't want to have to go to an 830am tute, I've got three straight hours of the bastard on a Thursday night that finishes at 830pm. Straight to the pub, I'm thinking.

Anyway. Speaking of straight to the pub, I believe I'm about to head out now. Will post again on Monday night, I think. Not doing much this weekend except Children Collide on Sunday night with Aiden and the Melbourne Uni kids, I think.

Crossposted.

peace

For No One.

2011-08-06T04:54:00.000-07:00

'Lo all.

I'm definitely making the most of my holidays, no question.

Couple of boring days, didn't get up to a lot. Last night, grabbed dumplings and beer and heard all about how awesome Splendour was with Bec, then headed to Yah Yah's to watch Drunk Mums and 8 Bit Love, both of whom were pretty cool. Simon the drummer came up to say hi. Not bad at all.

I headed back to the station after that, ran into British and his friend Bree, who told me that I was now going to a party in Belgrave. Me being in my intoxicated state figured this was a good plan. So we took the train all the way to bloody Belgrave, then were told the party was actually in Bayswater. Hurm. So we got picked up by Bree's friends, enjoyed a few scotches, then when we realised it was not only pretty small (6 people and 3 dogs), but pretty late. After a Modest Mouse singalong, caught a lift back to Burwood, then British dropped me off at about 5. So an interesting, if not particularly productive night.

Today I passed out til 5. I don't have much to do, though class starts on Monday. Good to see Carlton win, as well.

Anyway, I'll post again on Monday, I suppose, see how this new semester worth of classes is.

Hurm.

Crossposted.

peace.

Dylan Moran, man.

2011-08-02T01:24:00.000-07:00

'Lo all.

Jesus christ it's August. And I'm still on holidays.

So, a few more adventures to report than I expected. Still haven't been up to a lot, really, but meh.

I did finish the latest GRRM book, and though some bits were slow and infuriating, the start and finish were damn good. Looking forward to HBO keeping Game of Thrones going until at least this book.

On Saturday, headed down to Ponyfish Island for Aiden's birthday. Met up with the rest, had a few pints, then off to Melbourne Central for more pints. On the tv behind us, they had Flash Gordon playing. Pretty amusing film, from what we saw. Eventually we got bored, headed down to Galactic Circus via a charity bin (Isaac found a large metal fan, cue lots of "hey man, cool down" and "I'm not a fan" calls from passersby).

Lasertag in suits drunk was clearly not a good idea, which is why I didn't suit up properly. The rest of the poor bastards had the shoes and pants slowing them down (and tripping them up, as Patrick doesn't recall). We didn't do too badly against a horde of younger, more sober kids. Then we hit Crown proper after some games of pool (and harrassing hot bar wenches/Jake's brother). Met with some of Aiden's uni friends, drunk a lot more once we smuggled Pat in (twice). Managed to find a taxi at 3am, had to jump out early so Pat could chunder, but we found our way back to mine, and he didn't puke on our couch. Well done that man.

Next morning, my poor roomies were a little terrified of this besuited, vomit smelling kid passed out on the couch, but he didn't die so we got burgers and ice cream (good for hangovers, apparently). That night, met Aiden and Emily at Ponyfish, then found the Princess Theatre.

Holy crap Dylan Moran was good. He started out a little slow (we get enough people making fun of Julia Gillard and the carbon tax, and they know more about it, honestly), but once he got going properly it was gold. Emily saw an old friend, which was highly embarrassing for her and a little amusing for us. Went to the Elephant and Wheelbarrow for another drink, but left pretty quickly as most of the crowd was 60 year old men still pissed from the football that afternoon.

Then Sunday, didn't have much to do, but Angus and Barry made some superb overtures at the orientation for the exchange students, so I followed them to the pub. Made some new friends, had some overpriced beer, and then somehow we managed to get like thirty people to follow us back to our place for more beer and pizza. Angus and Jared performed the nutbush for our amused foreign guests. We herded them onto the train station and found our way to the Public Bar, where we had a lot damn cheap beer. Met Wakely there as well, which was cool. Once that got dull, headed to Turf with everyone else. Jared managed to climb on top of a large piece of construction equipment. Unfortunately, he was considered too drunk to get in at the next place. Only highlight of Turf was a mix of Warp 1.9 and Guerilla Radio, really.

This morning we woke up hungover, and noticed that someone had broken the milk bottle in the fridge, which had leaked over everything. Right now, roomies just returned from introducing the internationals to the Hawthorn. Hurm.

Anyway. This week, grabbing Harvest tickets (if you're in, let me know now!), and catching 8 Bit Love with Bec on Friday then Carlton vs Melbourne (lol) on Saturday.

Crossposted.

Catchyas.

Humming.

2011-07-24T03:30:00.000-07:00

'Lo all.

I am trying to keep up. Four so far for July... I suppose it could be worse.

Anyway, busy couple of days (lol not really). I haven't been getting much sleep, and when I do it's at very strange times.

Thursday, was summoned to Ponyfish Island for a few drinks with Emily and Jake, we ended up at a Belgian beer place underneath Eureka Tower and had overpriced buckets of Belgian beer. And I do mean buckets. If my camera still worked I'd have taken a photo.

Then Friday, visited Bec's new house, which seems pretty cool. Met some people, chatted a lot about the Beatles, and discussed Meredith and Harvest (PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE LET THERE BE SOMEONE I KNOW WHO WANTS TO COME I don't want to go by myself... I guarantee you'll have a good time watching the Flaming Lips, at least). I'm tempted to save up a bit and hit Meredith as well, even if they've only announced Icehouse (...meh) and Grinderman (OH GOD YES) so far. It seems like the most awesomely chilled festival. So it's looking like it could be a busy few months, Children Collide and DZ Deathrays next month, then Vasco Era and (HOPEFULLY) Digitalism and Death From Above 1979 (same problem as Harvest with that gig... but we'll have to make sure there's sideshows), then Meredith, No Sleep Til (they had some good stuff last year, sue me), and Falls, if the lineups are solid.

Yes, I can dream.

Yesterday I got up at like 5 in the afternoon, stumbled to the MCG and watched a thrilling game of football (for a Carlton fan). It was neck and neck til the end of the second quarter, then we scored seven goals straight. Eddie Betts kicked eight himself, Judd had at least a dozen assists, and Walker took an absolute screamer (which, as Bernice continued to remind me, I missed as I was checking my phone). To celebrate, Bernice, Pat, Jordan and I headed to Prudence and got smashed.

So here I am, Sunday night, not much going on. Baz just cooked up some steaks. Crazy stuff going on outside though. I do feel sorry for Cadel Evans, as soon as he wins the tour a famous drug addict dies and steals his headlines. And that business in Norway, jesus god. As a media kiddie, I'm a little morbidly interested to see what gets more attention, a singer dying or 90 people dying and forcing an entire country to look at their values and such.

Anyway. I don't have much planned for this week, though this time next Sunday I'll be at the Princess Theatre watching Dylan Moran. Not going to lie, more than a little bit excited.

Crossposted.

peace.

Radiodread.

2011-07-16T05:14:00.001-07:00

'Lo all.

Strange how facebook works, just casually chucking these posts up when it feels like it. I'm tempted to disable it, since I can't control the bastard. Oh well.

So a busy couple of days. Sorta. Last night hit the town with Wakely, killed time in Polyester and I was sorely tempted by a Baths vinyl single, then we met Aiden at college and played some abysmal pool. Went out to Melbourne Central and caught up with Pat, Jake and Shalee, who seems cool. Had more than a few drinks (ten dollar happy hour jugs, fantastic), then Wakely, Aiden and I dragged ourselves out into the cold.

Got some free toasties and watched some of Le Tour at St Hilda's, then trammed it down to RMIT. Saw Jake and Pat on the way with some new friends as well, weirdly. When we got to the studio, an old guy was playing some hardstyle (interesting), then we took over. Over four hours, we waffled about upcoming gigs, bitched about Harry Potter, and discussed Le Tour. Took some requests (not the Simple Plan one though; any radio show I'm involved in will not be devolving to that level), and all sorts of random crap. Cold Chisel, Flying Lotus, Queen, My Bloody Valentine, White Stripes, Children Collide, ELO, The Strokes... Shaky start (which is of course when we had the most listeners, sorry about that) and only two working mikes, but still, it was fun.

We regrouped in maccas over hotcakes after leaving with Sympathy for the Devil, then I jumped on the train as the sun came up. Painful.

Collapsed in bed for five hours, then got up and made my way to the footy to watch Carlton lose to Collingwood again. Not that I wasn't expecting that. Caught up with Bernice and Emma, and now here I am at Alfred st. Still half asleep, I think.

Dunno what's going on this week, hopefully not much. Looking forward to starting the newest GRRM book, to be honest.

Crossposted.

Catchyas.

Thursday.

2011-07-14T05:23:00.000-07:00

'Lo everyone.

Such adventures I've been having lately.

Spent the last week reading Harry Potter, I'm almost finished, then I'm going to scream through the Game of Thrones books, since the fifth one just came out. This is my idea of a relaxing holiday, so screw you guys.

Hit Dracula's with the rest of apartment 102, since we had to show Tammy and Anna as it was on their List. It was enjoyable, I suppose, corny as hell and aimed more towards tipsy middle aged women, but still. We knew one of the bartenders, who gave J Woosh a fright towards the end. Questionable music choices, I'm not sure that Black Eyed Peas and Kings of Leon have anything to do with the "vampyre", but whatever.

We moseyed over to Melbourne Central after that, had a couple of beers at Cho Gao, then joined the horde at the cinema. Most of them were dressed up, we felt a little out of place. Bonus marks to the person who came as Voldemort in a swimming cap.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2 - ***
Big and flashy, but disappointing. There's bits that just don't seem to fit, and they left too much out. Still, the beginning is fast, but then, that should leave more room for scenes from the book, not meh additions or needless slow motion bits. Oh well.

So yeah, not much to report. Been up at odd hours reading, which I'm sure isn't good. There's the prospect of further adventures on Friday night/Saturday morning, keep an ear on SYN radio...

Crossposted.

Catchyas.

Nineteen.

2011-07-10T19:47:00.001-07:00

'Lo all.

I know I said I'd post more in July. Things got in the way. Like lack of internet. Or obscene amounts of alcohol.

Anyway. Hit Turf the other Monday with Wakely and Emily, caught Aiden and generally got drunk. Not much else going on for the next few days, then headed back to Sale on Thursday for a run at the Star with the lads. Karaoke at Ringer's really sucks.

Next day joined the convoy headed for Seaspray. Terrible drive in. I still hate it. Was good to catch up with the girls at the campsite though, once Pat and I convinced Denny we'd drove past it. Had a few drinks around the fire while Pat devoured a watermelon.

Woke up cold but not covered in spiders, packed up quickly and ditched the girls after being iced by Steve (but I got the bastard back). Was good fun driving off with seven of us in our own cars blaring music as loud as possible all the way into Sale. Regrouped at maccas and met Isaac's girlfriend Amanda, then shipped out to Billygoat's Bend.

It was cold there too, I'll be honest. We climbed down the cliff and checked out the river, found some cool stuff like kerosene drums leaking black stuff and random tyres. Got pretty hammered that night, and nearly burnt through all of our wood.

We got up fairly late the next day and headed down the cliff again, this time for a bushwalk to some rapids. Except for the stinging nettles, it was pretty cool. On the way back up we thought we lost Denny, since he was behind everyone and hadn't emerged for half an hour. We spent another half hour looking for the bastard, eventually climbed back up thinking he was probably dead, or at least castrated. Turns out he'd climbed up a different way, but had neglected to tell anyone, so we found him sitting at the campsite making fun of us for being worried about him. Bastard.

That night, played some cards in Denny's panel van and ate a lot of mi goreng (comforts of home). I was exhausted so I crashed early, but I heard the rest having a ball playing a version of Kings.

Headed out pretty early the next day, got home and practically collapsed. May have gotten a cold, but oh well. I suppose I've had more fun camping (*cough*) but it was good to catch up with just about everyone.

Spent the next couple of days cleaning up the shed, I left a wardrobe full of boxes and a bookshelf with stuff in it, which isn't really much. On Wednesday, visited Pat for beer and Halo (which I still suck at, since when did they add jetpacks and laser swords?), Aiden and Fraser randomly dropped in for a bit.

Thursday, headed to Annie's in the Beardmobile with more wood for the shindig that night, met some of Annie's mates, then got chips with the droogs. I have missed the chicken shop. Hayden rocked up with a fat face from getting his wisdom teeth out earlier in the week, which was amusing.

Everyone nicked off to get costumes, so I headed to Annie's and chilled with Bernice and a dozen people I didn't know. Annie's new boyfriend is cool, good taste in music, and a couple of the others were alright. People started trickling in and we started getting wasted. Got a new pair of shoes off Emma (THANKYOU SO MUCH NOW MY FEET ARE NOT WET ALL THE TIME) and shedloads of lollies.

It is very strange walking into the backyard of a house party and seeing both your dad and your underage brother mingling with your friends. Oh well. Fraser's now got a notoriously bad photo on facebook for Patrick to edit, looking forward to how that ends up. I got dragged to the Star halfway through to help Jason and his folks out with trivia, I helped them go from fifth to equal second before I left (unfortunately they lost the tie-breaker). More drinking when I got back, then everyone headed to the Star for a bit (sans costumes, sadly Goku and Spongebob didn't make an appearance). We belted out Bohemian Rhapsody, got half the bar singing happy birthday to me, then the girls left. The guys stayed for more pool until last drinks, so we headed to Ringers. On the way we went past half the girls crying and shouting for some reason, which was strange. Either way, we made sure the city kids had a look at Ringers, then headed back to Annie's.

We were sitting around the fire laughing at the noises coming out of Bernice's tent for hours before it broke while she was in it, which pissed her off, so she went inside with Annie, Sam and Macca. Not enough room inside, Aiden and I thought, so we took off. Glad I got the shed, it was freezing bloody cold on the run home.

Next day, recovery, then dinner at the Star with the grandparents (we spend far too much time there). Headed home and caught some kids on skype, then once more back to the Star for some pool, then we got hammered at Ringers. I remember getting taken home by Sam at one point, so I must have had a fair bit.

Saturday, hungover and tired, went to Ocean Grove. Good to catch up with everyone down there. Beardman was in his element trying to get two laptops to work.

Yesterday we headed home and the kids saw Alfred st. Luckily the roomies didn't party too hard the night before. Still a mess though.

Since I burnt through all ten episodes of Game of Thrones last week (excellent series, read the book first though), this week I'm warming up for Harry Potter by trying to read all the books first. Barry reckons we're going tomorrow night. Challenge accepted.

Anyway, not a bad birthday week. I'll just need a week to recover properly.

Crossposted.

peace.

Deadening.

2011-06-26T05:17:00.000-07:00

'Lo all.

Welp. Holidays. Feels good man.

Haven't done a lot. Run myself out of food, journeyed around the state a bit, chewed through video ezy vouchers. Seriously, it's fantastic, you get a couple, then they say "THANK GOD SOME IDIOT IS STILL RENTING FILMS PLEASE RENT ANOTHER ONE FOR A DOLLAR WE LOVE YOU DON'T STOP NOW".

(I'm sure things would be different if my internet was faster, mind).

The Adjustment Bureau - ***1/2
Enjoyable, I guess. Little too mysterious for it's own good. Lot of heavy philosophical crap skimmed over (I know this because we had to study the whole free will thing). Not sure about the hats. Meh.

Dr Strangelove or, How I Learnt to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb - ****1/2
Pretty funny for a Kubrick film. Actually fairly fast paced, though there's still some filler. I believe I may have to check out some more Peter Sellers movies, any other film geeks in the house with recommendations?

Tron Legacy - **
Giant Daft Punk music video co-starring David Bowie. It'd be good if you could mute the dialogue, I suppose. Also cgi The Dude looked creepy as all hell.

Speaking of movies, is the second Hangover any good, or is it just a rehash of the first? Meh.

Much shenanigans at Alfred st, as usual. Our new additions include a boxing rig on the porch, new flatscreen tv (because setting up the projector took too long), and a pair of internationals crashing on our floor. So the house is a little full, bit of a shock when I find that the bathroom I share with Barry was full of girly crap. Oh well. They're cool.

This week, need to catch up with some people, then heading back to Sale either Friday or Saturday. Will probably be going camping. I dunno, Seaspray just seems cold. Real cold.

Apologies for the lack of posting, two for June is my most pathetic run yet. I'll try and be a bit more animated next month. Even this post is pretty meh. At least I'm trying to keep up. I'm on holiday, dammit.

Also, realising you'll be nineteen in two weeks is fun. Mmmmrrr.

Crossposted.

Catchyas.

Pinball Wizard.

2011-06-06T06:41:00.000-07:00

'Lo all.

Haven't really got much to write about. I've been busy, but nothing particularly exciting.

I managed to get all three essays done and handed in on time and they met the minimum word count without too much padding. Yeah.

Been watching some films, caught up with Pat and watched X Men the other day, been revising for today's exam as well.

Lots of shenanigans at Alfred st. Third nipples, drunken solo dancing to Eminem, bags of mushrooms errwhere... pretty crazy.

Headed to Simon's on Friday night, good to catch up with the family, was amused when uncle, father and brother all pulled out smartphones. Next day, got a lift on the back of Simon's motorbike to Buninyong (OH CHRIST I NEED ONE OF THESE), had an awesome lunch and chatted to all the rels, then got a lift off Jordan and Brian early to get more exam revision done. Things were loud back home, oh well.

Today, got up (relatively) early, found my way to Melbourne Park, caught up with Beth and her ever-expanding posse of psych kids, then went into the exam and smashed it. They seem to be a lot more relaxed than VCE ones, my phone was allowed to be off and in my bag, though I did need to show my student card halfway through an essay. All but one of the short answers was good, and at least one essay was passable. The second one was a bit too rushed. Oh well.

Came home, did washing, J Woosh was singing Backstreet Boys (surprisingly well). So yeah, semester done.

While I remember.

X Men First Class - ****
If only it didn't have cheesy dialogue. It had a lot of promise to actually say something about discrimination, but it didn't, instead it just threw cliches around. Other than that, awesome film. Good action, very funny, good soundtrack. As good as the (first half of) the first one.

Human Traffic - ****1/2
I'd like it more if I liked the music, but oh well. It surprised me, to be honest, ended up being a feel good drug film. Which makes a nice change to the Requiem/Trainspotting type of films. Would fit in well with Dazed and Confused instead, I reckon. Trainspotting's definitely a big influence, but yeah, happier ending.

Easy Rider - **1/2
I get the feeling that if I was high it'd be better. It just seemed too slow, especially the long, arty landscape shots. The ending was good, though the trip sequence felt like a music video. Meh, I can see why it's considered a classic, but that doesn't mean the whole thing is enjoyable.

Sanctum - ***
Definite sense of claustrophobia throughout the whole thing, which is good, but my god the actors and dialogue suck. Worth a watch either way.

127 Hours - ***
This, on the other hand, had a good actor, similar sense of tension (cept you kinda know what he does at the end, but my god the shoehorned in message sucked and let the whole thing down. I dunno. I'm always a little iffy about Danny Boyle films that aren't Trainspotting, his last three (this, Sunshine, and Slumdog Millionaire) all have similar editing things which annoy me... maybe he needs a new director of photography.

The Social Network - ****
Fincher. Good. Definitely made you think Zuckerberg was a dick. Ironic seeing Justin Timberlake as the creator of Napster. But yeah, managed to make a film about lawyers and computer geeks into something pretty entertaining. Looking forward to Girl with a Dragon Tattoo.

Think that's it. I'm nicking off for a couple of weeks, but I'll be back to go camping (depending on where), get wasted at Annie's, get wasted at Ringer's, etc etc etc. I hear Fraser wants to come down for a visit, god help us all if he does.

Crossposted.

Catchyas.

(oh yeah, voted in triple gay's hottest 100 albums today, somehow half of mine were in the industry top 100. Not sure if it's blasphemy that I put in a Funkoars album instead of a You Am I album, but screw you, I haven't heard enough of their stuff

Tame Impala - Innerspeaker
Drones, The - Here Come The Lies
Avalanches, The - Since I Left You
Funkoars - The Hangover
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Tender Prey
Pendulum - In Silico
Powderfinger - Odyssey Number Five
Regurgitator - Unit
Saints, The - (I'm) Stranded
Vasco Era, The - Lucille

discuss)

The Lonesome Crowded West.

2011-05-23T05:37:00.000-07:00

'Lo everyone.

Monday night procrastination fuel. Oh yes.

I've been trying to study, I really have. It is frustrating when you're reading an article online and the last four pages (which are the ones that most relate to your topic) refuse to load, then the library site crashes, then the internet dies. Not very cool at all.

Still. It's not all bad. I'm about halfway through the first draft of the first essay. It's absolutely awful and barely coherent argument-wise, but screw it. The really fun part will be steamrolling the next two essays as soon as I've finished crapping this first one out.

In slightly more positive news, the presentation for philosophy went well until I mess up the ending, but I don't really care. I think I may have failed the unit as I missed one of the online quizzes. Thanks for emailing me, philosophy people.

Not much else has been going on. Played some soccer with the international kids, they're all awesome, not so good for a crap player like me. Spent Friday night at home trying to essay while watching Carlton lose spectacularly (TWO POINTS. 90 SECONDS LEFT. JESUS). Hit the op shop as well for the open turn on Saturday, found me some stuff for like ten bucks, including a pair of checked red suspenders for a dollar.

The open turn itself was good. Met Pat, devoured a dinner box at maccas, then got lost trying to find the right tram stop. Met up with a bunch of ex-Grammar people at college (seriously, the pool room was just people we knew), then jumped on a packed tram with a buttload of brightly coloured people, which I'm sure terrified the civilians. Got to the pub, grabbed jugs, won then lost some pool, then got down to getting very drunk. Todd Ripon led the band through Solitude is Bliss, which was incredibly awesome. The whole having a band playing good covers was definitely a plus, it beats hearing the same club tracks thirty times in one night (shame their horn-heavy version of Propane Nightmares sucked). Made some friends outside in the spacious beer garden, swapped some clothes, lost count of how much I was drinking once they took our jugs away. Pat, Aiden and an American started chanting a hymn, bizarre.

They kicked us out after midnight, so we went to maccas and almost started a food fight, then Aiden and I strolled back to college since we lost Pat. Crashed pretty hard on Aiden's floor after checking facebook.

Woken up by Pat returning from some wench's room, we watched some cartoons (FROG IS SAAAD) then helped ourselves to parmas in their huge kitchen. St Hilda's is very, very cool, wish I could have gotten in.

I came back home Sunday arvo, caught up with Barry. They'd all been out at another party with unlimited booze, so good on them. He told me about the crazy events that occurred about 5am that morning, involving rugby players and hospital escapes. Pretty gorey stuff.

Anyway, so here I am, avoiding this contexts essay because I'm sick of it. If I get the draft done tomorrow, I'll spend the rest of the week cleaning it up while reading for politics. Can't wait for my two month holiday.

Crossposted.

peace.

(ANY MODEST MOUSE FANS IN THE HOUSE?)

Blitz.

2011-05-17T04:54:00.000-07:00

'Lo everyone.

Not much to report.

Things are all blurring into one, which isn't good. I blame this both on my awful sleeping patterns and the fact that I don't really get up to much.

There have been many shenanigans at Alfred st, Barry, Angus and Jared all have campaigns going to piss each other off, it's hilarious. For example, last night when I got home all the living room furniture was stacked against Barry's door. Barry then got his revenge by hammering the bathroom walls with a basketball while Angus had a shower.There's also been mysterious girls dropping in at ungodly hours trying to rape Jared, and poker nights (I lost ten bucks, but I didn't come last). Angus also showed off his mad cooking skills, making us a shedload of stirfry with pineapple in it (?).

I haven't been up to a lot, went out for lasertag with Cumpster, Pat, Steve and Daewoo last week, and had a steak at Emily's. Got crazy smashed last night after Wakely found a bar that sold $4.50 jugs (also had a knife pulled on us at the pool table). I'm about a third of the way through my first draft for contexts, and am about to write my philosophy presentation after this. Got my first essays back, I'm a credit-average student (seriously, all credits). Not bad at all.

The classes themselves have been patchy, I've slept through a couple. This is mainly because people pop up on skype at ungodly hours. Oh well. Today in contexts we watched three versions of Rebecca Black's Friday, including the Glee one. Awful.

This week, and the week after, will be struggletown. Will be attending the Open Turn with the Hilda's kids and Pat on Saturday to celebrate finishing one of my essays.

So yeah, not a lot to write about, but I'm still kicking. Looking forward to holidays at the end of the month, even if I don't know what I'm doing yet.

Crossposted.

peace.

Green Calx.

2011-05-09T06:03:00.000-07:00

'Lo all.

I've really been neglecting this. It's just a shame I don't have much to write about.

Last week... nothing particularly amazing. Went to class. Tried not to eat too much junk food.

I bought myself a new phone after a lot of buggering around, a Samsung Galaxy. It's basically the closest thing to an Android iPhone. Meh. I just use it to play solitaire a lot, the internet's pretty slow compared to the wireless on the laptop (when it decides to work).

Caught some people on skype on Friday which dragged out too long after hanging around in the city all day, then when I finally woke up on Saturday headed around to Simon's for food and painting some models with Josh. Watched Quantum of Solace again, it's a lot better without certain people (well... a certain year level) playing on their mobiles in the row in front of me.

My roomies have been having adventures. Barry got a hundred bucks for helping an old drunk man back to his apartment. The old drunk man also urinated on him, which amused the rest of us. Jared was up at 4am recording voicemail messages about Seth EFRICA (revenge for me being up ridiculously late the night before?), but Angus and Barry got him back through a poster campaign. I wonder if he's discovered the one on his ceiling yet. Or his calendar. Or his weetbix box...

I got a postcard today as well. Woo.

The rest of the month is going to be essay essay oral essay exam. I know, it sounds like crazy fun. It starts tomorrow. But then, once it's done, that's it, holidays for two months.

Crossposted.

peace.

Hayden and Nemo's.

2011-05-01T06:25:00.000-07:00

'Lo all.

Welp. It's May. Hell, we're nearly halfway through the year. Crazy.

So I headed home on Friday after squishing a politics essay. It's not my best work, but we'll see how it goes. Grabbed a coffee with Emily and caught up before the train, she seems well

Fitzroy street's looking the same as ever, sisters were arguing with Fraser about whether the footy or the wedding should be on (nice to see that Carlton won as well), and I made use of the free wifi. Fraser insisted on showing me every single application on his iPod. Hurm.

Next day, moseyed down the street with Beardman, again, not much has changed, and got some chips with Ryan. We saw Sam, who rode in on his motorbike, and Pat, sprinting in to get Tom a chicken. Ryan's plans for Europe sound pretty awesome, visiting trolls and reindeer in Norway and Luxembourg and stuff.

Headed home, grabbed a lift to Hayden's, and caught up with everyone. Patrick arrived with a spraypainted cardboard jacket, checked out Sam's bike, caught up with Alex Coy, lost a game of pool to Tom. Denny and Aiden broke out the helium, which was terrifying. After cake and group photos (ew) we headed out.

The Star is still a god-tier pub for us, we assumed control of the pool table and jukebox, and much singing along to Chilli Peppers and Foo Fighters occurred once the girls nicked off to Kas. I don't remember moving to Ringers, but I do remember losing a game of pool. We chilled on the couches in the Outback Bar, pretty dull really. I saw Cheesy, Corrine, and British, good to catch up with them too.

I think we hit maccas around three? We had a lot of double quarterpounders, then Aiden and I merrily walked home, avoiding coppers. Decided to check facebook when I finally stumbled into the shed, stayed up til dawn. Not good.

So, woke up after four hours sleep, said hi to Simon who'd rode down, then had lunch with the grandparents while my siblings tried to pressure me into cleaning out the shed. It's getting there, one more visit should do it.

Beardman dropped me off at the station, found Bernice on the train, we swapped stories about the night before, and tried not to fall asleep.

I got back to Alfred st, and Barry and Oscar are watching the Logies. They were not impressed. To be fair, they usually suck anyway. Instead, I watched Queens of the Stone Age's dvd, which was insane. Don't throw stuff at Josh Homme, he'll make a moshpit squish you.

This week should be pretty quiet, I optimistically hope that I'll be getting a start on one of these annoying end of semester assessments that are coming up. We'll see how it goes.

Crossposted.

Catchyas.

Children Collide and other Easter Adventures.

2011-04-25T02:15:00.000-07:00

'Lo all.

No point trying to catch up with this April posting thing, I'll try harder next month.

So, last Thursday was Angus's 20th, much drinking and partying occurred. Met a few of his mates, one guy had seen Coffee and Cigarettes, so props to him. There was a bike helmet with a camera attached to it floating around as well. At one stage Barry walked in with a No Standing sign. Crazy night.

Then Friday, slept in late, helped clean stuff off the walls, then shipped out to St Kilda. Had a couple of beers in the Prince, blew some money on the jukebox, and got a free beer out of it. Then met Aiden and Pat, who lost a game of pool, and headed upstairs to the bandroom.

Young Revelry put on a very, very distortion laced set, so we decided to head to the beer garden to make sure we didn't blow our hearing before the main act. Missed half of Red Riders' set, I could have been more impressed. We met a girl in the pit who knew Isaac, and knew Aiden and Pat from his facebook. Very bizarre.

Children Collide themselves were insane, we were a row back from the barrier and went nuts. Lot of big singalongs, and they tried out some new material which sounded alright. Didn't open with Across the Earth, but oh well, they still included it. No encore either. Emerged covered in sweat, headed downstairs for 7/11 water. There was a knot of dudes all trying to hold a guy back, and another one facing them yelling. We turned around, and he pulled out a meat cleaver. Only in St Kilda?

While debating the merits of wielding a meat cleaver (not only is it heavy, it's also trickier to hide), three police tactical response units screamed up, and we chilled out in the carpark with Pat's new car. Aiden caught a taxi when the heat died down a bit, and Pat offered me a lift.

This was our next adventure. We decided to follow the tram tracks to Glenferrie rd. Naturally, as soon as they split up, we took the wrong way, then in trying to fix this, we headed around in circles. Somehow, we found a train station, but it was on the Frankston line. Go figure. Eventually, we got to Caulfield, found Glenferrie rd. The absolute highlight was "My mum told me not to go driving at night - oh, my lights aren't on!".

Crashed pretty hard, slept in too late, trains were running late because of holiday track works, so I had to wait an hour and a half for a Geelong train. Pretty quiet trip, Beardman picked me up, headed to the Ghurk. It was good to catch up with everyone. The kids are all growing up, it's insane. There were a couple of heated rounds of spoons, then the adults (now very intoxicated) had a "discussion" with Bonnie's friend, and tried to do mad trickz on Fraser's bike. Very, very amusing.

Next morning, got woken up early, Bonnie and Riley dropped me off at the station, met up with Emma and Jess, got some food, then grabbed Aiden and headed to the Carlton. Not a bad set up, stage in the carpark and bar around the corner. The bar tokens were poker chips, which was pretty cool. Since we were waiting five hours to see the Vasco Era, we began drinking heavily, and built ourselves a beersnake. Aiden contributed by grabbing all the cups he could find. Eventually it was taller than me, which was cool.

Headed into the crowd for the Vasco Era, managed to get right to the crappy barrier. Pretty good set, got a lot of covers as well. Lot of fun singing along to Happiness is a Warm Gun, was not expecting it at all. Decided to head out for more beer during Muscles (who sounded pretty bad), then dived back in for Bag Raiders. Entertaining set, but really it was just two dudes flipping samples, nothing too special. Jess made a couple of friends in the crowd who sprayed her with perfume.

Once again, we were a row from the front for Children Collide, though this wasn't good as the barrier broke during their third song. Even more intense mosh, two massive security guards waded in during Farewell Rocketship to drag people out. Like Aiden, for some reason. Shorter set than what we got on Friday, but still pretty good. Didn't die, made it out and got heaps of water, then watched half of Little Red's set from outside.

We went hunting for a maccas after this, ate far too much, then waited for what seemed like ages for a maxi-taxi. The taxi driver was hilarious, Aiden started telling a story, but the music got accidentally turned way up. Riley joked that all we needed was a strobe light. Taxi driver thought this was hilarious, so he pumped up the music and started flicking the lights on and off. Hopefully we terrified some cars that went past.

Crashed at Katie's after quickly checking train times (... and facebook), then up far too early. Half the roads in Geelong were blocked because of Anzac Day parades, but we made it to the station alright. More track works were going on in the city, this time at Southern Cross itself. Plus there were footy fans everywhere.

Anyway, here I am, back in Hawthorn, caught the last quarter of the footy with Barry (disappointing, Essendon), and yelling at my crappy internet for dropping in and out so much.

This week, politics essay, then home to Sale on Friday afternoon. Woo.

Crossposted.

peace.

Frontier Psychiatrist.

2011-04-20T04:48:00.000-07:00

'Lo all.

I figured I'd better get a post in before my Easter adventures. I've been slack, as usual.

Haven't really been up to a lot, to be honest.

On Wednesday, went out for dinner with Jess and the horde for her birthday, caught up with British and tried to escape getting photographed. Our terrible luck with nightclubs continued, as Eurotrash said they were too full for us. On a Wednesday night. Go figure. Bastards. Ended up in Crown once again, British kept an eye on the cheap blackjack table, but there were too many people there. Ah well.

I tried to spend as much of the weekend as possible writing my sociology essay, since my politics one got moved back a bit. Finished it Sunday, just before Ryan arrived. We caught Gabriel Inglesias, who was hilarious, even if his warm up guys weren't. I recommend checking him out on youtube. The jager story was awesome. Headed to Aiden's for a beer or two after this, then get back to Alfred st to find a wild poker game going off.

I hear in the morning, after Ryan left, that Angus, Barry and co ended up at Crown, then walked home. Crazy stuff there.

Monday I cleaned up the essay and watched some of the Coachella stream. Now this is a fantastic idea (even if it did chew up all of my internet). Caught the end of the Black Keys' set on Saturday, then woke up extra early to see Death From Above 1979's "reformation" show (AAAARGH WOULD HAVE KILLED TO BE IN THAT MOSH), The National's raucously moody set, and The Strokes (... pretty much the same as what we caught last year, except with some extra new stuff). When I got back from class, Barry had hooked up his laptop to the projector, so we all watched Kanye West's set in the living room. He can put on an excellent big self indulgent show, I'll give him that. Did not convince me to go to Splendour.

Speaking of which, I am mighty disappointed by Splendour. I can't stand Coldplay, I'm not a Kanye fan, and I haven't heard enough of either Jane's Addiction or Pulp to judge them properly. The only band on the lineup that I haven't seen before that I would pay to see is Modest Mouse. Maybe DJ Shadow. The rest of the bands are either a) stuff I've seen before at BDO/Falls/their own shows/even One Night Stand; b) stuff I'm not interested in enough to make an effort to see, or c) generic triple j/hipster crap. Plus it's like $500 for a ticket. Add to that getting to Queensland, plus food, beer, etc. Nope. Second lineup might be good, but I doubt it.

/rant.

Anyway, Monday night, headed to the Astor with Bec, good to catch up.

Eraserhead - ****
Slow as hell, noisy as hell, but who cares, it'll freak you the hell out. Kinda not as much creepy as I was hoping, but what we got was still very WTF. And gorey too, which was cool. As Oscar said coming out of the cinema though, it's more of an experience, and yeah, I dunno if I'd see it again. Still very cool though.

Yesterday, argued about Jersey Shore and the Hills in contexts (there are people who think it is real. I'm putting them on the same tier of idiots who think wrestling is real). Such fun. Fell asleep in politics almost, not good. Went to Simon's for dinner, again, good to catch up with him and Kirst, and have a non-microwaved or fast food meal. Watched a movie in Simon's mancave, got a lift home. I must head back there soon.

Public Enemies - ***
Good to finally watch this whole thing. It's good, but it does get repetitive and seems to go for longer than it should. Some of the dialogue is jarringly cheesy too. Redeemed by it's action sequences. I'm a sucker for Tommy guns, I think.

Today was pretty quiet, got up late, relatively enjoyable philosophy class (must be because I'm sleeping more?), and now I'm on "holidays" til next Thursday. Woot.

Lots of trekking around this week, tomorrow night's Angus's 20th, then Children Collide, then Moranghurk, then Festivus, then probably back to Sale for a night. Will post a wrapup afterwards.

Crossposted.

Catchyas.

Do The Astral Plane.

2011-04-11T04:18:00.000-07:00

'Lo everyone.

It's worth noting that I began that last post with "I've been very lazy". Um. Yeah. No kidding. Pretty good effort, only getting 6 posts last month. I could say I'd try harder but then I'd probably get hit by a truck or something.

So. I'll just stick to what I can remember, it's been a while.

Rango - ****1/2
Yes. Loved the Dr Gonzo and Raoul Duke cameos. The dogfight with the bats (...in bat country) was the best I've seen in years. The way they just included bits of all these other films says a lot about what people look for in a film these days (that's the media student in me fighting to get out), but it was enjoyable. Character design was awesomely messed up, though I'm not sure why girl-lizard had hair... Good film.

Jackass 3D - *****
I'm a sucker for this sort of crap, as you know. I can't imagine what actually seeing this in 3D would be like. Highlights included the midget fight, the volcano, and the swimming pool trebuchet (with extra wheelbarrow).

What else have I been up to...

Headed to Smith St to see Annie's sister Yelka play some music, she was pretty good, covered the Beatles, definitely worth seeing if you can catch her. There were two other dudes with guitars playing as well, the more rocknroll one was awesome until he broke a string and had to commandeer another one.

Got taken shopping on Saturday, DFO is not a nice place. One shop was playing Portishead, which would have been awesome if they did not want me to exchange two limbs and a firstborn for a pair of jeans.

And then there was the "pub crawl" on Saturday night. Typically, after suiting up (Brad's suit was awesome, just putting it out there), we decided to go out on the one night that was "no suit Saturday". Then, at the next place, some of us were not wearing leather shoes. Rubbish. I miss getting drunk in Sale. As everything started tearing itself apart around me (I'D ONLY HAD ONE BEER THIS IS NOT GOOD), pushed the horde onto Aiden's rooftop and went chasing drunks around the city trying not to get them arrested. It's a lot trickier than it sounds. I'm sorry if that pissed anyone off, especially that family in the restaurant. Anyway, once everyone was taken care of, and I'd finally had a beer (or five), we limped to Crown and got relatively wasted. Crawled over the road to Emily's, woke up still spinning slightly.

Uni's been hell, I finished my first essay yesterday after two days of straight work and a lot of procrastination. It's pretty terrible, I can tell, but it's my first one. I assume I'll get better. The next two which need to be done are a little easier, but the first problem I've encountered is that the library only has like two copies of the book that I'm sure every person in the subject is wanting to use. This is going to be fun trying to pick it up, might have to do some furious googling to get some resources that aren't from the seventies or something. Oh yeah, and last week in the contexts lecture we got to watch Jon Stewart on Crossfire. Awesome.

Went to the footy on Friday night with Emma and Bernice (I needed a night off) to see Carlton try not to lose to badly to Collingwood. We were told there'd be a band playing at the start, instead we were treated to twenty minutes of Collingwood wanking around, with an Eddie McGuire speech, huge arse flag getting pulled up above the big screen, and confetti getting shot at the toothless cheer squad. We did alright but some of the tactics in the first half were infuriating. "They're winning! Quick, kick the ball backwards, then we'll go back and forth a bit in their goal square! We'll lose our momentum but at least the Pies won't have the ba- oh damn, they tackled me..." Rubbish!

Commiserated in Prudence, where they played The Mercy Seat and Angel among others, and we got tipsy pretty quickly (if MCG food wasn't so damn expensive we would not have been in this situation, I'm sure). Emma and Bernice were very impressed with the place, and I was glad to have the opportunity to get smashed that night.

Anyway, so here I am on a Monday night, saw Tess on her way to Joe's, tempted to go see what they're doing since I finished my homework, but have not started these essays, so I dunno. We'll see. Wednesday's Jess's dinner, so it'll be good to see the horde. Not sure if I can make it back to Sale this weekend, but my adventures over easter may mean I'll find myself over there.

I'll try and post more frequently, eleven days into April and not even a single post, pathetic. Still, no promises, no doubt a piano will land on me or something. 2500 word essays aren't far away.

Hey, I made it through half a semester of uni without dying. Sick.

Crossposted.

peace

Cloud Control and other adventures.

2011-03-27T04:00:00.000-07:00

'Lo everyone.

I've been very, very lazy.

Did next to nothing last Sunday, as I was stricken by the flu. Isaac and Hayden dropped in, which was cool. Sounds like they're having the time of their lives at Monash.

Monday was not fun. Philosophy was contradicting everything we'd learnt the previous week, and contexts was this wanking around about how some people prefer to write. Not particularly useful, but oh well.

Rebel Without a Cause - ***
It's meant to be this big thing, but to be honest if it got released today it'd go right next to Machete, Hobo With A Shotgun, Planet Terror, and Black Dynamite. Basically just a vehicle for James Dean to look cool. There was a lot more blood, death, and gay undertones than I was expecting for a film from the fifties. Still, it wasn't awful, not a bad ride.

Tuesday was still not fun, contexts tute was more "how to write" but nothing particularly practical, and dissecting James Dean's coolness, then a politics lecture which bored almost everyone to tears, unfortunately. The lecturer's very animated, at least, even if the subject matter's a bit dull.

That night I headed to the Hawthorn with Bernice and Emily, where we drank beer and danced to a Fatboy Slim/Fatman Scoop mashup. Was not amused, to be honest. The promised free Wizz Fizz was not in abundance.

Then Wednesday I slept in for too long, still caught my philosophy tute after almost getting lost. First time I contributed in class too, woot. Can't remember doing anything else of value that day. Meh. Next day was a bit more eventful, politics tute where we argued about euthanasia and a guest sociology lecturer who went on about Marxism a bit too much.

Off to the MCG, run around in circles getting into the member's stand from Richmond station then finding Bernice amongst the proles, but it was a good game. We were winning early, but Richmond fought back. Fourth quarter was excellent, Judd kicked a goal or two and we got ahead by twenty points. Was good to be in the crowd, looking forward to checking out more games this year.

Friday (Friday, Friday...) nearly overslept, rushed to my sociology tute, made it just in time. Had to debate whether society was improving or not. Pretty obvious. Then a test, I know I got at least 8 out of 10.

Headed to the city after doing my washing to go shopping with Bernice, found a couple of band shirts in Retro Star (*pukes* SO OVERPRICED) which looked like they'd fit a pair of twigs, then some shiny things on Bourke street. Rushed home and back again, met up with Bec, and hung around in Fed Square discussing the comedy festival til Bec's mates rocked up. Dinner in Beer Deluxe (Good god the beer menu is awesome, gotta try an Epic Armageddon among others), then headed across the road (dodging trams) to the Forum.

To start with, it's an impressive theatre, lots of statues and crap next to the stage. The opening act was Fishing, and it was pretty standard two-hipsters-with-samplers making the floor vibrate. Very Avalanches-ey, or a more dancey Emancipator. They seemed happy to be there, at least.

Next up was Jinja Safari. It was like they just added some bongos and an extra drum to some pretty standard indie pop. The percussionist, who was right in front of us, appeared to be on some sort of stimulant. The guitarist attempted a massive jump across the stage and unplugged his guitar, so he spent half of the next song trying to figure out where it went. Anyway, the music was pretty meh, and the band themselves seemed to be trying too hard, especially the Flea-esque bongo drummer. I wasn't that impressed. They were redeemed somewhat when the guitarist jumped off the stage and started climbing around the statues and stuff, and a sitar being swung around towards the end.

The thing about Cloud Control that hooked me, apart from their ridiculous catchiness, was that when I saw them live at Falls every now and then they'd just tear up the stage, even if it was just one guitar solo. So I kind of spent the whole of their set waiting for them to let loose a bit, kick one pedal and start rocking out instead of sticking to the jangly pop script. There were good singalongs, particularly Ghost Story, which they opened with, but during the acoustic bits with just Heidi and Alastair singing they seemed a bit off key. We got a School of Seven Bells cover in the encore with Fishing manning the laptops, and The Rolling Stone in particular gave off some awesome Tame Impala-y psych out vibes. Towards the end Alastair seemed to find a fuzz pedal that added a bit of grunginess, which was excellent.

So yeah, a good show, finished off with a massive There's Nothing in the Water featuring people on shoulders infuriating the security guards.

Afterwards, followed Bec to a bar for a beer, then went all the way across the city to try and get into another one, but we would be paying for five minutes worth. Meh.

Suddenly it was the weekend, and once again I slept through my alarms and almost panicked when the train into the city was running late. Said hi to Pat and Aiden, who were heading out to play some pool (since there was no pacman), and suffered through a horde of bogans on the train. Walked home, saw Meg, Louise, and Brad, and had a coffee with Bernard and Pa. The Beardman's Epic Beard is back. Sisters were very excited about the Queens of the Stone Age and Daft Punk gear, though the Daft Punk one was a bit too big. Caught Emerald absent mindedly singing along to It Is Not Meant To Be (sitting around smoking weed... oh dear). They did whinge to me that all their friends listen to Kesha, "no one knows Tame Impala!".

Fraser's barely changed, I'm still getting a running commentary on facebook about his bogan mates, and he's keen to head to the city to drink beer with Pat, Aiden and Jake. Beardman seems to be doing alright as well, he hasn't torn out his hair yet. The shed's a mess, but when isn't it.

Decided to go for a drive after dinner, visited Isobelle and the Mardi Gras, and dropped Fraser at the Relay for Life. Gawd, it's been two years since we suffered through that bastard. So cold!

Natural Born Killers - ****
"I know. Let's satirize serial killers and the media. But instead of doing it funny, let's do it extra violent. And instead of filming it conventionally, let's make every angle skewed and flick between black and white and colour, and cartoons!" STOP DOING THIS. The creepy montages were cool, and the big prison riot at the end. It was difficult to take seriously.

Today I got up late and missed the relatives, then headed down the street for chips with Denny, Kelly and Ryan. It was good to catch up with them properly, stay in the loop, and talk pokemon (of all things...). Ended up in maccas discussing the merits of jumping into the playground to get a happy meal toy that ended up under the slide over mcdoubles.

Cleaned out a bit more of the shed, then raced to the station, finished Sartre's Nausea on the way. It's a little whiny but still pretty interesting.

Got back late, jammed on a train back to Alfred st with all the Grand Prix fans, and Jarred tells me that a train got hit by a car in Hawthorn just before. Lucky it wasn't mine.

So this week will be reading and writing and studying and oh god save me. Then Isobelle's pub crawl on the Saturday. Something to look forward to.

(if anyone managed to sit through all of that, you get a gold star. my fault for being lazy)

Crossposted.

peace.

Room on Fire.

2011-03-19T04:55:00.000-07:00

'Lo everyone.

This week just keeps getting weirder and weirder.

So Tuesday, we got to watch and discuss Mad Men and Monty Python in contexts, then in politics half the room went to sleep because we started going over the constitution. Took Isobelle to Murmur for her birthday, she got a cocktail that had "mist" on it. Strange.

Wednesday was pretty dull, as Wednesdays go. Philosophy. Yay. Not looking forward to writing this essay at all.

Then on Thursday, it was St Patrick's day. My only green item of clothing was my Falls wristband, does that count? Either way, politics tute where we got to some engaging discussion between four members of the class, and a sociology tute that covered research methods. Such fun.

That night, hit the town. Met Isobelle and lined up for half an hour in front of a uni student Irish Bar while Aiden danced in the windows and sung pub songs. Finally got in, jagerbomb'd, then met Maddie and some of Aiden's uni friends. Rocked out to Paul Kelly, Johnny Cash, and an insane banjo solo upstairs. Consumed many pints. I left early after a car got stuck underneath a Safeway truck at the traffic lights outside.

Afterwards (piecing this together from Isobelle and Aiden's drunken accounts), they decided to visit Emma at Ormond. When you're this drunk, clearly an 8 foot tall fence is no obstacle, unless you need a boost to get up. Next day, after limping around, Isobelle found out she sprained her ankle pretty badly. So no epic pub crawl, disappointingly.

Friday, early sociology tute, where Andres and I had to make up research questions (made me think of psych. dull), then I did the washing. Woo.

Today I visited Isobelle, bought a book in St Kilda, and had beer at Aiden's rooftop with Jake. Underneath us, a film set had sprung up. Jake practically ran down the stairs, as this is what he's trying to get into. Turns out it was for an ad for Dunkin Donuts. They filmed the same scene of some hipster carrying a box of donuts getting told to piss off by some (gay looking) construction workers about a billion times. On the other hand, the extras who were standing around were very hot. It was pretty cool to have all this happen right on Aiden's doorstep.

Started heading home after this, met Bec and Liam on Swanston st and we chilled out at Murmur for a while, then since I was damn near falling asleep I headed home. Lotta bogans on the train, oddly.

Get back to Alfred st, there's hot dog buns falling from the sky that make a large bang on impact, and a large group of overly made up girls heading into our apartment. Barry, Angus and I were very, very confused. Turns out the buns had been dropping for a while, and one of the girls had come to drag Barry out. All of them were international students, and one had gone hiking with him today. So that was amusing, they all nicked off wondering about getting fined for having open bottles of beer on them. Angus then decided to head out to a party on Barry's city bike. It flashes when you peddle it. Wwwweird.

Barry then told me about what they'd been up to all day, unclogging drains and stinking out the whole house from the rotting hair they found in Angus and Jarrod's sink. Pretty disgusting.

So yeah, that's what we've been up to this week. Next week, Carlton vs Richmond Thursday night and Cloud Control Friday night. That's about it. Tomorrow's recovery and Rebel Without a Cause.

I've been watching far too much Daria, I'd forgotten how kickarse the soundtrack is. Next up is Full Metal Alchemist, I think.

Crossposted.

Catchyas.

Narc.

2011-03-14T05:36:00.000-07:00

'Lo all.

So here we are on a Monday night. My work is done for the moment, I'm rocking out to some live Interpol (from Lorne though, disappointingly), and to be honest I'm kinda hungry.

Lots of adventures to catch up on.

On Friday, after an engaging sociology tute, did the washing and hit the city. Naturally, the trains weren't working, so I had to suffer through a tram trip where some bored looking girl bitched to her friend about how she had to pay $170 for leaving her feet on the seat on a train. Sounds like rubbish.

Dropped in at Emily's to pick up her sister's books, said hi to Shona, we looked at Justin Bieber clips while I contemplated a 28 floor drop. Left them with Flying Lotus, they didn't seem impressed.

Met up with Ryan after that, and we went shopping for Isobelle's birthday, then hung out at the station laughing at people who missed their trains. A fight broke out on the Frankston platform (surprise surprise). Went to visit Aiden after this. We couldn't get into the Carlton (underdressed. Next time I'll prolly have to wear clothes), so we hit a minibrewery instead, which was good but expensive. Then we head back towards Aiden's where a punk band called Vaginaballs was playing, and for six bucks we were not missing this. They weren't bad at all, to be honest, though the vocalist sucked. We met a dude at the bar called Slayer who thought it was awesome that we were visiting the Pony, then Aiden nicked off. Met up with him outside Parliament, and met his harem of college girls, who seemed pretty cool.

Ended up in Brunswick st after a maccas run and much singing of I Like You So Much Better When You're Naked (...), so tempted to grab a pizza at Bimbo's, instead nicked off early before the trams stopped.

Up bright and painfully early the next day, got a text from Cumpster telling me to come to the aquarium. Sure, why not, says I. Get there a bit late, but I'm glad I went, it was good to catch up with Steve and Cumpster again. And see some goddamn sharks and eels and stuff, and this massive manta ray (thinking of you, George). Pat, Aiden and I went hunting for fish and chips after this (..wouldn't you?) and made plans for that evening. Headed back for a shower, watched some Dudesons with Pat, then back into the city. Up on Aiden's roof, we rocked out to Children Collide, caught up with Isobelle and James, and I think they ended up polishing off a slab of Fat Yak, excellent effort. Shame I had to nick off early.

Slept in til 3 the next day, of course. Didn't know it had been raining. Pretty sad, I suppose. Aiden and I decided to investigate the Espy, since the Vasco Era were playing. Unfortunately, they weren't on til after the trams stopped (bloody Sunday nights...). Still, it's a very impressive pub, the pizzas are cheap and delicious, we still saw Ted in the kitchen, and we caught Young Revelry, who are the band opening for Children Collide. They put on a pretty good show too. I think the horde should be dragged to the Espy eventually.

Today was dull, I guess, we're starting Plato in philosophy, and screaming through narrative in contexts, got to watch a bit of A History of Violence, which was suitably gory. I've wasted this evening doing things like readings and blog posts and typing up my lecture notes. How dull. Very keen to get onto the Strokes new album after these Falls boots.

While I remember.

Sunshine - ***1/2
Took a couple of shots to get through this, but it really isn't bad. Pretty standard Danny Boyle playing around with the camera, especially when he gets to the end, but it ends up being just a shinier version of Event Horizon at the end.

Gattaca - ****
Lots of piss. Like, for a heavy science fiction film about morality and crap, there's a lot of piss. Piss in bags, piss in catheters, pissing in cups, pissing in wheelchairs... piss everywhere. Other than that, very interesting film, I guess I'm a little late to the party.

Clerks - ****1/2
Hilarious. I gotta hit the rest of Kevin Smith's earlier films now. Very stupid film, and you can tell it was made on less than a shoestring, but still awesome.

Not Quite Hollywood - ****
Yeah, I thought this was a documentary about the Australian film industry with Quentin Tarantino, it's actually a porno. Not even kidding. It's interesting, but it really is mainly a porno. Not what I was expecting at all. I had no idea Australia had these sort of films getting released back in the day, no way in hell they'd come out now. Pretty funny though, especially the insane stuntman who did an 80ft dive while on fire.

Equilibrium - **1/2
Kinda disappointed by this one, it seemed to take its cues a little too much from the Matrix and 1984. And the awesome fighting scenes didn't really kick in til the very ending. Still, kept twisting around, and the awesome fighting scenes were awesome. Especially when a dude's face got cut off.

So tomorrow is more classes, should be fun. I'm all caught up now though, I guess.

Oh, and happy birthday Isobelle.

Crossposted.

peace.

Anyone's Ghost.

2011-03-10T04:39:00.000-08:00

'Lo all.

Not quite dead, just pissed off with the fragile wireless. Indeed, throughout this post you should be picturing me screaming and throwing computer at the wall. Once I get unrestricted cable internet again things will be better (cheers Beardman for the network card and stuff).

So, not too much to report on, to be honest. Tuesday was the contexts tute, where we argued about Lady Gaga and ads for clothing labels that seemed to be advocating gay rape. Then the politics lecture with Beth and her friend, going over libertarianism, suddenly Teabaggers and Ron Paul seem more dangerous and stupid.

Wednesday was another sleepless run to philosophy. I think I'm in over my head. Still, I suppose Socrates, despite being a bit of a bastard, was kind of interesting. Checked out the Astor with Bec and her friends that night, $9 double feature, so, so cool.

When You're Strange: A Film About The Doors - ***1/2
We missed the start, disappointingly, but the rest was pretty good. Killer soundtrack, funnily enough. Johnny Depp narrating as well. Did like all the concert footage, not so much Jim Morrison posing at the camera on a rock or swimming or driving around, but oh well. Worth checking out if you like The Doors, obviously.

Got Exit Through the Gift Shop as well, which was hilarious. Screwed with Bec and Sean's heads though.

What are we up to... today I had the politics tute, we got let out early because we understood all the Aussie values stuff that we'd done at high school, then the sociology lecture. This is getting interesting, looking at theories (basically Karl Marx). Headed out for a coffee with Isobelle, and tomorrow I gotta catch up with Emily (ten million thankyous to your sister as well) and Ryan in the city. Not anti-social just yet.

But before all this fun stuff, tomorrow's also sociology tute, and I can't do the readings as they're all sold out of books, and then it's time to do the washing. Joy. This weekend will also be rocking out at the Espy with Bunny Munroe, Young Revelry, and Vasco Era once again, which should be awesome.

(still wishing I could see Pulled Apart by Horses and Guthrie, but oh well)

Crossposted.

Catchyas.

First Week pt 3: Electric Boogaloo.

2011-03-07T03:54:00.000-08:00

'Lo all.

Yeah, I know, I got pretty slack in those last few days, sue me. I was "working hard", etc, etc.

So last Thursday I had my politics tute in the big new cheese grater building. It's very easy to get lost, as all the signs are new and wrong. I'm also quite happy I have no lectures in "the fishbowl", which is a lecture theatre with glass walls. Apparently it's distracting, can't imagine why.

Then an introduction to sociology with the cool lecturer, watched some youtube and laughed at (ancient) photoshopped pictures of mice. Go figure.

Next day was Friday, so I was up bright and early (relative to the rest of the week) for the sociology tute. Got to analyze some photos of ordinary people, including some Stepford Wives looking mothers. Met a Colombian dude who seemed pretty cool, and the tutor was pretty good too. I am glad we're over the whole "getting to know each other!!!" thing.

The rest of Friday was spent washing sheets, visiting Centrelink, and catching up with Ryan in the city. The bastard's got himself a job that could end up being very profitable for him, so well done that man. We wandered round a couple of record joints, then I caught Bec in Degraves st. Said goodbye to Ryan as he ran to get a ticket home, and wandered round some more before Bec nicked off to a BBQ. Unfortunately, as I drifted back to Flinders st, I found myself in a JB Hifi. Dangerous shop, very dangerous, as not only do they have most of the stuff the independent places do, it's also very cheap. Walked out with Rated R and a Nick Cave dvd. I was... celebrating the end of the first week.

So Saturday, I dropped into Isobelle's work (forgot to get a photo of the bloody poster! Goddamn!) then hung out with Patrick. We went shopping on Bridge rd as he needed new jeans, and the guy overcharged me for one shirt by $360, which he sheepishly handed me as cash. Weird. Headed back to my place, where Pat was impressed except for the smell (it's gotten worse since, Angus is spraypainting), and we played some pool, which was surprisingly free.

Then I visited Pat's and had a few beers with his housemates, who seem cool, and walked back through Deakin to catch a late tram. Definitely a lot of fun after half a dozen beers, and I would do it again *cough*.

Suddenly it was Sunday, and I went down to Jordanville to visit Annie's new place, and get some supplies off Beardman who'd taken all her stuff down in the Beardmobile. I can call him Beardman once again as well. Caught up with Annie, sounds like Deakin's definitely a lot more fun that Swinburne, then went back into the city after swapping like four trains at Burnley to get home first. Rubbish.

Back in the CBD, there was a Greek festival on Lonsdale st with rides and stuff, picked up some Yaks and visited Aiden's apartment. He and Patrick were slowly getting through Joe's slab of Hahns on the roof, which was very cool. Aiden's clearly had the best adventures out of all of us so far (Naked Isaac seems to have nothing on what goes on at Melbourne's O camp...) We got fairly drunk then decided to head down for chinese. In hindsight, probably not the best idea, but we kept an eye on Pat before he knocked any signs down on the walk back. Got a train home and tried for an early night.

This morning I accidentally slept in for an hour, then when I got out of the shower Jarrod and his mate burnt their breakfast enough to set off the smoke alarms, which sent the Unilodge people running and annoyed damn near everyone else. Barry noticed they were giving away free chocolate milk down the road, which was cool.

Second philosophy lecture was slightly more interesting, we're off Sartre and into Socrates, who to be honest sounds a bit pompous and wanky, but oh well. Back home for phat meegz and more Daria (cheers Isobelle), then off to the contexts lecture. Got to watch the Simpsons and make fun of Twilight, and made friends with a dude called Sheridan. Pretty good.

Got home again, kinda bored, so I signed up at Video Ezy, seven weeklies for ten bucks, most excellent. Got some catching up to do movie wise, I think.

12 Monkeys - ***1/2
A little predictable, you can see how it all ends towards the very beginning if you pay attention. Was not impressed with Brad Pitt's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest impression. It was definitely a Terry Gilliam film as well, there were parts in the "future" which seemed a little Pythonesque, and it was also easy to see the progression from this to Fear and Loathing. Still, not a bad dystopian film.

Event Horizon - ****
This one was a lot of fun, genuine body horror, kinda rare to see these days. Also liked the overt Chaos references. Little cheesy towards the start, but still. Not a bad film at all.

Next up is Sunshine, which should be similar (that's why I rented it out).

Anyway, tomorrow is contexts tute and politics lecture, then I think I might check out the Kesha (ke$ha?) tribute night at the Hawthorn... not.

Crossposted.

Catchyas.

First Week pt 2.

2011-03-02T03:13:00.000-08:00

'Lo all.

No post last night because I was both lazy and away.

So yesterday, first tute, then another lecture. The tutor in the contexts tutorial seems cool, she's a Buffy fan and got into a discussion with one of the girls in the class. Had some crappy survey to do where you write what media you consume then discuss it with the kids near you. Met a girl called Michelle who's done all this sort of thing before, she seems cool.

Bought a philosophy textbook off a dude out the front of the coffee stand for cheap, then moseyed over to the politics lecture with Beth. The lecturer dude seems cool, and has a sense of humour, which is good. Seemed like he knew what he was doing.

Today, after a lack of sleep, hit the philosophy tute running. It reminded me of lit last year, there's the same people contributing with the same good ideas. Again, the tutor's alright, so that's good.

Visited Isobelle's new work this afternoon afterwards, there's a poster on the wall that's asking for Nick Cave's doodle (... drawing. I know). I lol'd.

So this evening, I've spent listening to Aphex Twin and annotating politics chapters. Such fun.

Tomorrow, politics tute and the first sociology lecture. Apparently the sociology lecturer's hilarious, so that should be good, then may as well go get drunk with the student union for cheap.

Crossposted.

Anyway, the end.

First Week, part 1.

2011-02-28T03:24:00.000-08:00

'Lo all.

This'll be a ratings winner, first day of uni.

I got up late, almost ran over by some guy on a unicycle as I went to the shower, which tripped me in my still-mostly-asleep-state out.

Grabbed my crap and headed out, I'm really not far from these places so I suppose I have no real excuse for being late. There were breakdancers spinning around on their elbows outside.

First lecture was philosophy, run by a Scottish dude. I can tell I'm going to get sick of the "this is how everything works" half hour of every lecture this week. But we started existentialism, Sartre and stuff. Could be interesting, I suppose. Girls next to me were not impressed though.

Took two hours glorious break to refuel on noodles and coffee, chatted to my roomies and Angus's mate, then nicked off again to the same lecture theatre for Media Film Literature: Texts and Contexts. I think I'll just call that one contexts. It wasn't too bad, lecturer seemed to know what she was doing, referenced footy a lot. I can tell this will probably end up pissing off the hipsters who detest sport. But apart from that, suddenly it's year eleven media on steroids.

Grabbed some fish and chips on the walk home and I've basically been watching Mad Men and doing the readings. Seems deceptively easy so far. Haven't had a tutorial yet though. See how we go.

Tomorrow's the contexts tute, then a politics lecture. We'll see how that goes, I suppose.

Crossposted.

Catchyas.

"O Week".

2011-02-27T04:32:00.001-08:00

'Lo everyone.

Jesus, it's been more than a week. Things have been pretty busy.

Um... Friday? Can't remember much. Got a coffee in the city with Isobelle. Saturday was meh, Sunday... must have done something.

Monday I got all sorts of visitors, Isaac and Hayden went for a drive and got lost, and Isobelle dropped in Mad Men. Then the next day, Jake and Bernice had a quick look around, in the middle of our crappy pub crawl. More of a reconnaisance crawl than anything else. Checked out the Hawthorn, which is Kasbah on steroids, and Cheers, which is a minute's walk away, and reminded me strongly of Ringers. Lots of girls out, thanks to O week.

Next day, went to the city with Bec, and had a look in a few hipster bars. Kind of impressed with one that was empty, the bartender was chilled and there was a skeleton playing guitar in the corner.

Thursday was orientation day. As I expected, it was pretty dull, none of the hijinx of Melbourne or Monash's. Got introduced to the lecturers, q&a sesh about the course, shown around the library. They let us loose at lunchtime, banks and mobile phone companies and travel agents all gave us showbags, and I signed up for an Age subscription. The girl on the desk and I had a laugh because we didn't consider the Herald Sun real news, dohohoho. What's happening to me.

Another lecture warning us about plagiarism followed, then I joined the crowd heading to the Hawthorn. The promised free drinks lasted about an hour. Caught up with Joe, made friends with an older guy who was just starting at uni, and we taught an Indian dude how to play pool. Followed these guys to the student union bar, where the beer was free and the girls seemed to all disappear. Still. Very sozzled.

Friday was just watching Mad Men. Couldn't be arsed getting up and drinking more. Pretty sad, really. Visited Isobelle last night after the Unilodge barbeque, which was pretty disappointing (DOOF DOOF MUSIC AT 12 IN THE AFTERNOON!), and today I was in the city again with Bec and her future roomie Pete, checking out cool coffeeshops in warehouses and then catching a band on Smith St. We met some more hipsters there, which was amusing. One girl was a volunteer at Falls, which meant she could watch the bands from the front when she wasn't working. Very jealous.

So we hung out with that for a while, got some pizza and maccas and avoided hobos, then I nicked off. Need some sleep.

Anyway, that's about it. Not exactly the most fun o week, but meh. Still drunk a lot. Tomorrow, philosophy and media text study. How exciting.

Crossposted.

peace.

How To Handle A Rope.

2011-02-17T02:53:00.000-08:00

'Lo all.

Well, it's been damn near a week since I moved in, and I do wish I could write about more exciting things.

The important things that needed to be done on Monday wasn't anything to do with Valentine's Day. I actually forgot all about it, but then, if I may quote from a Kaufman film, it's "a holiday invented by greeting card companies to make people feel like crap". Simon rocked up for a coffee in the morning, and we commented on the skirt and sushi in the area. I headed down to have a hunt for Centrelinks, but did not find any that weren't packed. Clearly Valentine's Day prompted a need for cash.

So that night, headed out with Jake and grabbed a beer and perused the gig guide for stuff do to at the Rooftop Bar, then met Emily and visited Galactic Circus. After inspecting Crown for pizza joints (there were none, oddly enough), headed to Elizabeth st, then I missed the last train home by 30 seconds so I grabbed a tram instead. Very lucky, as this was the very last tram.

The next day, I did find a Centrelink, and the lady seemed shocked that I was from Sale. She loved Sale, apparently. The fishing was good and the Captain's Inn at Wurruk was terrible. She gleefully told me I was entitled to all these fancy things, and said she just loved giving country kids money. So, you lazy bastards, get to Centrelink and don't whinge about your finances, just look nervous about getting money and they'll give you more.

Today and yesterday was mainly about porting all my music from the desktop to the shiny new macbook pro which arrived on Tuesday afternoon. And it is shiny, as I'm yet to desecrate it with stickers and such. The only problem, apart from the incompatibility with just about everything else I own, is that it doesn't have solitaire.

Still, it made the agonising hour and a half of washing and drying that needed to be done on Wednesday that much better, mooching the uni's wireless network. Still not game enough to attempt anything illegal on it, though today it decided to update itself with more than a gig worth of updates. I hope Swinburne won't notice.

Also met my new roomie on Monday night. His name is Angus, second year engineering, he likes the XX, Ratatat and Crystal Castles, and used to go to school with Jason. So yeah, he's cool. Dunno when the other two roomies arrive, but apparently we're due for an American and another first year.

El Beardo dropped in this evening as well, on his way to a Swinburne propaganda rally designed to make parents feel good about abandoning their children, or something, that was the gist of it according to him. He explained how to fix up my cable interbutt, and gave me a fan, so now I'll actually be able to sleep at night through this goddamn heat. It was good to see him, dunno when I'll be back in good old Sale again though.

Tomorrow, I think I'll hit the city, catch up with Isobelle, see what's going on. I have to enjoy these precious few days before classes start up, cos according to this draft timetable I get no weekdays off, and Tuesdays and Thursdays I don't finish til 6bloody30. Oh well, at least I have no ridiculously early starts...

So yeah. Still alive.

Crossposted.

Anyway, the end.

St Kilda Festival.

2011-02-13T04:38:00.000-08:00

'Lo everyone.

So this morning my plan was to wake up early and get some stuff done before shipping out to the city. I slept through my alarm for an hour. Brings back memories.

Picked up my printer and some other stuff as well. Felt a little conspicuous carrying the box back. Then found a tram to St Kilda after a coffee (thanks for the sugar, anonymous roomie), and avoiding an old man with bright red hair and huge sunglasses who followed me after asking which tram to take.

There were a lot of street performers down there. Since it'd be a while til anyone else turned up, had a look around. Heaps of stages with cool music, and a lot of market stalls. The Hare Krishna people had a village set up, with free watermelon, a huge line for food, and a stage with a dude playing sitar. Main stage had an alright rock band, who gave away free cds.

Looped back around and found a good patch of grass to watch Gareth Liddiard. Same setlist as BDO, except he wasn't as drunk. He's still got some amusing banter, which included pointing out a cloud that would "take a dump" on us. Jezebel was once again a highlight.

Checked out another band on a smaller stage, which seemed to be doing tryhard folk. Washboard and rattling chains included, and the lead singer had a massive beard. Respectable, I suppose, if only for having a designated chain-rattler. Also saw a fat Canadian man lie on a bed of nails and have a sixteen year old girl stand on him, which earned my change.

Met Bec after this, wandered around trying not to buy cool tshirts (I am a sucker for an amusing pop culture reference on a tshirt, I really am), met some of her friends out the front of the Espy, then headed over to a little stage out the front of Luna Park to see some hipsters bash out some Art vs Science/Foals/almost Death From Above style rock. Lot of synths. Drummer looked like a member of Short Stack with a moustache, but all the girls knew him, and I was reassured he's cool.

Walked around a bit more after this, caught half of Jebediah's set, which was kind of samey. Sun came out as well, I'm burnt as hell. Wind did not help with the sound mix either, and we were way too far away from the mosh. Oh well.

Got some chips on a stick (OMG TRY IT SO AWESOME) and Bec had to try sherbert honey lemonade. Overpriced but good. Wandered back for Hungry Kids of Hungary, who made the mosh jump around but didn't sound that good. Maybe I'm just not made for indie pop rock.

Since we were far away from the mosh, decided to head back to the city before Tim Finn came on, which I kinda regret, but I suppose he tours enough, and Muscles, who sucked, according to some guys on the train later.

Back in the city, wandered round, checked out Bec's new work, got coffee, then met more of her friends in the park. Circus people. Very cool. Chilled there for a couple of hours, made a few new friends, then caught a train back in.

I'm tired as hell, fairly sunburnt, and tomorrow there's important things that need doing. Joy. Wonder if I'll meet my new roomie.

Crossposted.

Catchyas.

The Move.

2011-02-12T04:37:00.000-08:00

'Lo all.

It's been a while.

So, picking up where we left off, last Saturday was British's "last" day in Sale, so Aiden, Pat, Jason and I caught his fantastic show at the Star which included table dancing and a rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody that had the entire bar watching, and ended with him getting kicked out by security. Epic.

Haven't done much else. Quit my jobs, took Fraser on a drug run as he's replacing Aiden, and stupidly agreed to do my last run on the pushie. Oh god. Couldn't have picked a more humid, muggy day, that had a headwind for most of it as well. Said goodbye to Ken and the rest of the institutions in town as well.

Last night, (SHE SAAAID... New Strokes, get on it) hit the town for what I hope will be the last time until Salefest. The droogs all rocked up, which was good, and Meg joined us sober just for the show. Headed to Pat's to beer up with Isaac and Ryan, then caught a buttload of girls at the Star.

Visited Jacks' just so Pat and Isaac could say they'd been inside, then met the rest at Kas for jagerbombs. Followed Sam and Isaac out, and had many beers at the Star while playing pool and ruling the jukebox, which got compliments from passersby. Then the usual karaoke ones got put in, and we were entertained by Pat, Aiden, Jake and British roaring I'm a Believer and YMCA, complete with actions.

After last drinks got called, went to good old Ringadings. Lots of the other crowd out, and Gerrard working the bar. So, naturally, we got smashed. There was a maccas run in here somewhere as well, where we saw Malouf pull up with three girls.

Much moshing and laughing at Pat's new friend occured, then when I realised everyone was melting away I met British hanging on a fence outside and started the last walk home, chatting about his exploits at his old boarding school, the injustice of getting booted out of Ringer's, and enjoying popcorn chicken ripoffs. Crashed hard at like 4.

The prospect of getting up early (for me) and driving all the way to Melbourne was definitely not looking good. I think I was a little drunk when I got up and unplugged my computer. Still, everything in the van, Beardman in a good mood, Black Keys and BRMC on the stereo. I wasn't dead.

Make it to Swinburne, sign in, sneakily park in the Safeways loading dock and throw my stuff into my room. There's one other person there. I haven't met him yet. I just know he has stuff in the bathroom and kitchen.

Set up my internet (plug in cord, give credit card details), then after a shower and a walk around, got a text from Jake. Met him down at Fed Square, we wandered around looking for food and ended up in Chinatown in a satay place. Holy crap. Good satay sticks. He showed me his favourite bar in the city (Spleen, which I intend to visit properly in the near future), then we wandered back, found ourselves at Emily's with her mother for half an hour watching a film about magazines. After this, I saw Hayley's friend (their situation with the BDO reminded me of Aiden and the Strokes, which is terrible), and found Isobelle's place, said hi, and now here I am.

I'm not dead, I haven't been stabbed, raped, kidnapped or glassed, I haven't met my roomies yet. Things are going well thus far.

Tomorrow, St Kilda festival with Bec, see if Gareth Liddiard's still drunk, then actually start thinking about what needs to be done next week with employment and Centrelink and such.

Crossposted.

peace.

Fever Dreaming.

2011-02-05T02:42:00.000-08:00

'Lo all.

Hurm.

I think I'm a bit distracted. Must be the whole moving thing. Or something. I dunno.

It's been very hot, and then very humid, then it was raining all of today. Typical summer?

Anyway, I sought shelter from the heat by watching movies and finding any excuse to drive around with air conditioning.

Mary and Max - ****1/2
Much like The Road, it's just depressing thing on top of depressing thing. There's a wry sense of humour to it all, like in Harvey Krumpet, but it's still ridiculously sad. Just when you think things can't get any worse for these people, it does. Which is kind of amusing.

Four Lions - ****
This sort of film needs to be made more. It's not sympathetic to terrorism, but it does make fun of it. And it is stupidly funny. The ending, and the bits in the credits, are hilarious. Still suffers from being a little predictable, but oh well.

What else have we got... Like I said, I've been a bit distracted this week.

Went out last night instead of going to Melbourne for the night for city frolics, I hear much fun and rollerblading occured anyway. Starting out at Pat's for beer pong against his brother and Jackson with Jake. We won one and lost one. Isaac arrived to show off his impressive new Mazda, then Aiden rocked up with more beer. Headed down to the pub afterwards, Joe and Jackson promptly got booted out, and we played more pool with Cheesy. These games dragged out, especially when Isaac Sawade and Maddy challenged Aiden and Pat to a rematch. Security guard was not impressed.

Went past Jack's, which seemed to be closing anyway, and had a pot in Kas. New owners, new gimmicks during the week. Didn't see anyone so we kept moving.

Ringadings wasn't exactly full, but we met up with British, Cheesy, Jason and Sam, and sampled Gerrard's Special, which was a very cheap mix of like 5 shots with lemonade. Patrick made a new friend with his Irish accent, which could end up being very amusing when she finds out he's not actually that Irish.

Kept drinking and playing pool til lights, then stumbled out to maccas. Jason decided this was as good a time as any to get an obscene amount of mcdoubles, which we all chipped in for. Probably an odd sight, 6 teenagers carrying two bulging bags of cheeseburgers and three sixpacks of UDLs we found in Jason's car, walking in the rain to Pat's shed. Last drinks there, woke up Joe and Jackson with mcdoubles, then British and I headed home. I remember seeing the clock saying 6.00 as I crashed. This is not good.

Woke up properly around 4. Hurm.

This week I've got a million things to do. I think I'll be buying a new laptop, so in theory, unless something worth writing about occurs between now and next week, the next post will be from my place in Melbourne.

...

Crossposted.

Anyway, the end.

Big Day Out 2011.

2011-01-31T00:41:00.000-08:00

'Lo everyone, we're back with part two.

So, still slightly shellshocked, up early to shower then pancakes. Found Ryan wandering around the wrong number 9 tram stop, then met the horde in time to catch the right tram. We all arrived fairly early, which was good, line wasn't exactly long, but it's not like all the artards pouring out of the trams lined up. Got in relatively quickly, I ditched my bag then raced into the D with Ryan after picking up some merch (Stooges, Grinderman, something for Isobelle). I own too many band shirts...

No stress or pressure getting into the D this early, got a spot maybe halfway back. Sun was definitely out, sweating already and the first band had barely started. The Vines put on a good show, though the new stuff seemed a little off. Ride and Get Free went off, naturally.

In the rush of triple j core kids over to the other side of the stages for Little Red, I grabbed a spot on the barrier in front of the Orange stage to prepare for Dead Letter Circus. Little Red were alright, lot of swapping of vocalists. Crowd seemed very appreciative, even if Denny didn't.

So, Denny, Ryan, OtherPat and I clung to the barrier as the black-clad Dead Letter Circus got going. Next In Line was a definite highlight. The bassist was very energetic, even if the lead singer kinda wasn't. For their last song, This is the Warning, they brought out a couple of extra tomtom drums, and drummers from their friend's bands. At one stage there was the drummer, these two other guys, the lead singer and one of the guitarist all smashing these drums, it was very awesome.

Extricated ourselves as Airbourne launched themselves across the stage in front of a massive stack of Marshall amps. We got some food at that stage, which meant I missed out on catching the end of Jim Jones Revue's set. Met up with Bec and had a look around, then we split up and I hit the Hot Produce tent for Gareth Liddiard.

He was very, very drunk. Behind us in the Boiler Room, we could hear Die Antwoord, who he abused... then admitted he'd be seeing as soon as he was done. For just one (drunk) dude and a guitar, he put on one hell of a show. We got Shark Fin Blues and Jezebel out of the Drones' catalogue. He tried to start a fight with one guy, then promised to buy him a beer. So cool.

I also realised at that stage that my phone was behaving strangely. Well. Stranger than usual. This made me paranoid, I was missing calls and texts. Oh well. 50000 people all texting each other at the same time, must be a little confusing.

Caught the end of Die Antwoord from the middle of the Boiler Room, the music was pretty meh but they were very amusing. MC Ninja had a microphone coming out of his boxers shaped like a phallus, and they had a large inflatable dude with his own large phallus on stage with them. Funny, but not really good. More of a novelty thing.

Met Bec again and dived back into the Boiler Room to get a good spot for Crystal Castles as DJ Perplex, or the warm up guy, mashed up Aerodynamic. He went through two more Daft Punk songs before hitting some dubstep, which was pretty good. At least it would have been if it wasn't a billion degrees in this tent, and every shirtless bogan was rubbing more sweat on you.

Crystal Castles came on with Alice doing a Kurt Cobain impression with her crutches. She still managed to put on a good show, loving Baptism and Doe Deer, though Alice Practice and Not in Love seemed to get lost in the noise a bit. Hottest girl with crutches most of us had ever seen.

Emerged to find a firetruck spewing water at the crowd, and found Patrick, who'd joined the airbrush tattoo dick squad with one on his back, which everyone else found hilarious. Grabbed some free ice tea then made our way into D through the cattle gate. We caught most of John Butler Trio's set from about halfway back in between the two stages. He was very impressive, though there was no Better Man to depress the crowd. Ten minute 12-string solo, then they played Funky Tonight as we moved into the crowd massing front of the Blue stage for Iggy and the Stooges. They got a little impatient during Nicky Bomba's drum solo, but still.

Then Iggy ran on stage, Raw Power first up, it was awesome, then what I'd paid to see, massive Search and Destroy screamalong. Hell. So, so good. Got a lot of other good stuff, but I have to say, Iggy was definitely the only good part, the Stooges themselves were a little too... old. For a sixty something ex-coke addict though, Iggy was rolling around the stage, and on the ground, and on the barrier, and during Shake Appeal he got a couple of dozen people out of the crowd to dance on stage with him, including one girl who immediately tried to make out with him.

After this, Rammstein's ominous intro music started and then, with an explosion, the giant black curtain covering the Orange stage burst off to reveal a huge German flag, which exploded and the band were chugging away. Bec ran off with her friends, so I found Jess and we watched Rammstein's pyrotechnics-heavy set from the hill over some chips. Denny and Ryan were somewhere in the massive, heaving mosh, right up the front. We missed out on the penis cannon (lots of them on the day, very strange), the firework crossbow, and massive, massive flamethrowers everywhere, including all over one "fan" who ran on stage (in flame-proof gear).

I headed over to catch the end of Primal Scream on the Green stage, and was there just in time for the second half of Loaded (which is that song you like, Beardman). Had to grab my backpack at this stage, annoyingly, but ran back and found a good spot in the crowd with Jess and Bec for Grinderman.

It was dark by the time they came out, which added to the atmosphere, St Nick getting a huge roar out of the crowd just by picking up his guitar. They started off with Mickey Mouse and the Goodbye Man, which has been stuck in my head since. Good gawd. Mindblowing stuff. If I didn't have my bag on my feet I figure I'd probably be on the gorram barrier. Get It On was another highlight, if only because I roared the words (... might have pissed off the guy next to me), and No Pussy Blues was another cathartic singalong. Warren Ellis dropped his guitar during Heathen Child for a squealing violin solo, kind of not expecting that. They closed with Grinderman, which builded slowly until it was howling, Martyn Casey's bass just thundering, and Warren smashing a hihat with a maraca. Nick jumped up on the barrier at one stage, which drove the crowd nuts, devoting lines to particularly hot girls. Definitely my favourite act (in case that wasn't obvious from the gushing... sorry).

After that, wandered around looking for everyone else as Bec jumped on a shop selling Boosh tshirts, found them all at the tram stop, which was lucky. More people on the tram laughing at Pat's tattoo, then stumbled into the showers at the hostel. We stunk pretty bad, girls weren't impressed when we came to visit them. They all seemed to have had a good day, they spent around six hours sitting on the barrier in front of the Converse stage for Children Collide, Naked and Famous, Gyroscope (who had a Nirvana cover), and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes. Ryan and Denny had spent most of their day in the D, moshing to Deftones (who had a "perfect" mosh), up the front for Rammstein, and catching Tool's mad laser show. Aiden was practically on the barrier for LCD Soundsystem as well, which is very cool.

Crashed hard with ears ringing and phone dying again.

This morning, woke up, hit the showers once again, then almost missed the checkout time. We all split up making our way down Elizabeth st as the girls needed juice, Denny needed shorts, and I needed to buy some cds from Polyester records. Met up with everyone at Spencer st over sushi, then argued about which train carriage to get on. Made it home alright, after a fairly gossipy and eventful ride that I tuned myself out of.

So here I am, still a little dead, but everything's done and written down and posted up, fresh from my head so I don't forget anything.

This week... gotta sort out some stuff, but that's it.

Hurm.

Crossposted.

peace.

Fear and Loathing in the Centre of the City at Night.

2011-01-30T23:51:00.000-08:00

'Lo all.

This is part one of two. This is our city adventures. Next up will be BDO.

Before we get going, just some catching up on regular business.

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus - ***
Very hot redhead. Confusing plot. Johnny Depp was in Captain Jack mode, as usual. Not sure what on earth Tom Waits was doing. Visually though, very cool, and you can definitely see the Monty Python influence.

The Illusionist - ****
It's like they took this film, and just dipped it in sepia. Everyone had a silly accent too. But the ending made it worth it. I still think the Prestige was better, but this one had an insane tweeest.

Garage Days - ***1/2
It's funny how fast this has dated. When this came out, Australian music was all about bands like Spiderbait, Jebediah, the Superjesus, Frenzal Rhomb, and You Am I. Powderfinger had only just released Odyssey Number 5, they were still sort of a grungey garage band. I wish things were still like this. Anyway, not a bad story, not sure if Pia Miranda is hot or not, and the tripping out sequences was hilarious. Also amusing was the amount of importance placed on Homebake, which didn't run this year.

Anyway. Right. Here we go.

Went out Saturday, stumbled home late, got up extra early (and still drunk) for work, and after about forty minutes, sent home. Ah well.

Monday, headed down to the city with El Beardo, enrolled myself at Swinburne. No choice of subjects, just a lot of lining up. Interesting crowd in the room too. There were a few plastics, a few indie kids, one fat girl with a Tool shirt, and a couple of awkward looking basement dwellers. Should be interesting. Had a look around Glenferrie rd and showed Beardman the unilodge place, very impressed. I'm basically living on top of a station, a cafe, and a sushi place. Awesome.

If I did anything major on Tuesday, I can't remember it.

Then Wednesday, the horde all dropped in for an afternoon of radio, cricket on Fitzroy st, and giggling at Zoo magazines stolen from Brad's place while we burnt Jess' school stuff. Very, very disappointing Hottest 100. Very bland. 3 of my picks got in, so yay. Half the kids went out, Bernice, Jordan and I ended up in the shed while Annie drew all over Denny's shoes.

Next morning, found Sam sleeping in his car out the front, and Fraser had a mysterious headache. I have to wonder where he got that from. Surely it couldn't be the girly Passion Pop?

So, caught the train with Aiden and Nemo, Harrison saw us and we caught up on the way to the city. Harry's been having a very interesting time touring Bali, sounds like.

Emily met us at the station and dragged us up to her fancy-as-hell apartment in Eureka Tower. Incredible views. Jaw dropping balcony. And we were barely a third of the way up the building. After watching some tv, Denny, Aiden, Emily and I headed down to Fed Square to see The Vasco Era play a free show with George and Megan. Sid, the lead singer, was noticeably drunk, but they weren't too bad. They pulled some kids out of the crowd for their last song, where the drum kit was dismembered and they all got to hit stuff.

Went to a Mexican place for dinner, we got a couple of plates to share, Denny took the largest taco and Emily seemed to be gone off one margarita. Went back to the apartment, Emily seemed to decide that this was a good time to go swimming, so we went downstairs to look for it. Reception said that she wasn't allowed in. Damn.

After some shenanigans upstairs, got changed and went out in search of a comedy club, started out with a pint at Ponyfish Island, which is a little bar in the middle of the Yarra. They were playing Iggy. I was impressed. Then we visited a theatre of ill repute, and yet more shenanigans were encountered. Very, very amusing, but I will not share it here. Ask Emily.

Off to another bar after a few random turns, checked out the Elephant and Wheelbarrow where an old guy was wheeling out Johnny Cash covers, then a pub that promised comedy. We went up, and there was no one on stage. We did see a midget with a beard, and we tried a beer called Fat Yak. It was awesome.

So, still pretty sober, walked home, ran into Bec and her friends at a maccas, and we saw a naked man walking past Flinders St Station literally getting his arse kicked. Must have been one hell of a dare.

Right, Friday. Aiden nicked off with Sam for kiteboarding lessons in St Kilda, so Denny, Emily and I hit Fed Square for internet access. Tom Gleeson, the ranga comedian, grabbed us for his new tv show and asked us random questions about the Australian anthem, flag, and president (kind of obvious what this show was about, to be honest).

While Emily had an eyebrow appointment, Denny and I checked out a kick arse record shop. Never before have I seen things like Baths and Flying Lotus with physical cds and vinyl. Jesus. I was prepared to spend millions in there.

We headed down to St Kilda to meet Sam and Aiden after that, with a very fun tram trip. Lots of zombie hunters shooting nerf guns. Aiden and Sam seemed to be having a good time, though after they finished they seemed very, very sunburnt. They got some pizza, then went back into the city. Aiden, Denny and I ventured through Chinatown to get some six packs of Fat Yak. We could have won a trip to Mongolia to see yak racing.

Anyway, so we had a few drinks up at Emily's, Isaac and Isobelle dropped in. Watched a couple of movies, then things got interesting. Chilled on Emily's bed for a while, I remember changing into boardies and jumping into the bath with Isobelle to get my last beer back. Ended up on the balcony. Stayed up far, far too late.

Next morning, dragged myself awake. After some recovery, packed up, headed down the street once again. Emily took us to a witch shop. It smelt weird. Had a look in Bernard's new shop, where sombreros were purchased. Also checked out Blasphemy, which had all this "metal" gear, including some strange corset things that Denny and Isaac just had to try on. Very amusing. Back to Emily's to pick up our gear and laugh at Juno, then back to Flinders st to meet the horde. They were all alive, including Pat, so that's good.

Caught a tram and swapped some stories which doubtlessly offended some of the other passengers, then spent an hour checking everyone into the hostel. The guys were slightly impatient with the girls, so we went back out into the city. I met Hayley and her friend on Bourke st and sold her a ticket, then wandered with them back to the horde. Girls were a little pissed that they couldn't join us for dinner as we decided on a sports bar (which had Fat Yak on tap!), and ditched us. Afterwards, hit Galactic Circus like a freight train as we had two cards with an hour of free games. Much shooting, racing, and guitar-heroing occurred.

Up the stairs for laser tag, we had a buttload of little kids joining us, and the little bastards almost kicked our arses. Lots of fun though, even if the girls decided not to join us. We walked past a man standing on a pole with a flaming whip, which was pretty cool. Made it back to the hostel to bitch about how hot it was with the girls before crashing hard.

You'll probably be reading this second anyway, but part two's on it's way.

Baptism.

2011-01-20T03:07:00.000-08:00

'Lo all.

Still alive.

Forgot to mention in that last post, Black Keys cancelled their show. So suddenly, my awesome end of January is looking slightly less awesome. Still, I've been told there are a lot of free gigs going on that week anyway which I may be dragged along to. Either way, it's going to be messy.

Gangs of New York - ***
My disc kept skipping, so maybe it'd be better if I hadn't lost half an hour's worth of dialogue. Still a little slow, after one hell of an opening scene, but the ending was awesome.

Last night, visited Emily's for her and Isobelle's going away thingy. Almost too cold to go in the pool, didn't stop people when they were a little drunk. Good to catch up with some kids, had a chat with Jonty about Gorillaz. A little amused when Emily's parents started complaining about Crystal Castles. Agnik arrived slightly tipsy, poor bastard just turned 18. Didn't sleep until very late as we had to watch youtube clips, Muppet Treasure Island, and then fight over bunk beds.

Didn't really wake up until I got home and showered this afternoon. Hurm.

In other news, accepted into Res at Swinburne, which is good. Not cheap, but better than some other places. I kinda want to move in now, but there's things which need sorting first.

I'm a little stuck as to what to do on Australia day, tempted to hang around at home all day, then rush up to Melbourne to see some live bands... I dunno. See what's going on.

If anything interesting happens between now and next Thursday, I'll post again. Otherwise, big wrap up of our adventures in the city afterwards.

Crossposted.

peace.

Shellshocked.

2011-01-17T02:44:00.000-08:00

'Lo all.

So, a busy couple of days.

Friday, rushed down to Melbourne, almost got lost at Huntingdale looking for a train, then made our way into the G past a buttload of people wearing Colonel Sanders costumes. Met Simon and Josh, got the usual spot, and watched as the Colonel Sanderss all got up and half-heartedly attempted the chicken dance. Apparently it made a world record.

Game itself was pretty good, if only because we won. White disappointed, and Pietersen got a lot of boos. Kept a running commentary with Aiden, got invited to hang out in the city afterwards with Bec. After we won, headed out, hung out with some rhyming hipsters for a bit (I did hear them mention Brick and Modest Mouse, I guess they aren't all bad), then when Bec left I took a Frankston train back to Simon's.

It was as expected. There were a group of bogans yelling at each other, and I passed a fat man with an impressive mullet. On my carriage, a kid was sculling a bottle of Midori and dancing with his headphones jammed on and his pants falling down. No stabbings though. Made it back to Simon's and watched Happy Days, which is bizarre.

Next day, home again, showered, off to Annie's, where we hung out and bitched about the heat with Tom. It was good because it was fairly chilled, no one was getting particularly wasted. Apart from Denny, who decided that jagerbombs were not the way to go, instead, just mixing a glass of half Red Bull and half jager would be more efficient. Don't know if Pulp Fiction was very coherent for him. We watched Dead Snow (Dod Sno? Crazy Norwegians) which is the standard zombie film except it's in the snow and all the zombies are Nazis too. Ended up watching Metalocalypse as people stumbled back from the pub, much to Isobelle's disgust.

Awake after four hours sleep, caught a lift home with Dayne after cleaning up the backyard and watching Tom and Isaac light up a pile of firelighters. Off to Melbourne again with Aiden and the Beardman, we missed the train at Traralgon, so into the suburbs again. Just missed the first over, but oh well.

Turns out my crazy membership is not as crazy as I thought, not allowed to sit with the peasants, so Aiden decided to hang out in Bay 13 and join in the chanting. England played alright, then Watson came in and smashed them, hundred and sixty something, stayed in all innings. Clarke was disappointing, which pissed off the bogans, poor bastard was getting booed whenever he didn't make a run. Hussey saved the day, tonking out 16 runs in one over, then getting out the next one. We won, but it was very close.

Back home, not much going on, woke up at some ungodly hour, checked the Age and VTAC this evening, looks like I've been accepted at Swinburne at Hawthorn, which is good. I just wish I knew more people who were going, but I guess it'll be good to start fresh. Lot of crowing on facebook.

Tomorrow... hurm.

So yeah, that's all I've got. I guess I'll post again this week, after Emily and Isobelle's massive party.

Crossposted.

Anyway, the end.

Black Bugs.

2011-01-11T02:20:00.000-08:00

'Lo everyone.

So far my plan to get myself out of the house is working. Or at least, for the first week or so of this year. Good start.

A note on the photos: I know last year I said I'd try and take a photo every day and post it up here. I forgot how incredibly lazy I am. At first I'd skip taking photos every day. Not every day had something worth taking a photo of. Then I skimped out on chucking them up here, because I had to manually resize them all and that takes time then you have to upload them and put them in right. Not fun. Eventually I figured screw it, I'll make it a facebook bonus feature. And so far that's worked out alright. I've tried to make sure that I'm only putting interesting things up, that I can write about and contextualize just a little, instead of "HERE IS ANOTHER PHOTO OF ME EXCEPT THIS TIME I LOOK JUST A LITTLE DIFFERENT" or "THIS IS SOMETHING VERY DEEP AND MEANINGFUL, AND I CHANGED ALL THE COLOURS AROUND SO IT LOOKS VINTAGE AND ARTY I'M VERY INTERESTING AND PAY ATTENTION TO ME".

*cough*

So we're off to an alright start, the 2011 folder is up to three photos, which isn't bad.

Anyway, business. All this shooting in the States, as tragic as it is, both amuses me, as it shows the country's nuts, and terrifies me because these guys are in charge and influence us. Oh well. Who cares about outdated laws about gun control, even if innocent little girls get shot and killed. It's their CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT.

Closer to home, went to Lakes with Aiden yesterday where we were schooled in the art of FPS in Timesplitters and Red Faction by Tom. Jumping around using a sniper rifle like a semiautomatic is a lot of fun. I forgot how terrible I am at it though. Watched The Professional as well, which was amusing because Tom had only seen the American version, which cut out the violence and awkwardness.

Drove back today, visited the video shop, and out of my mental list of like seven films, they did not have one. Very depressing. Back home, things are slow. Hurm. Missed a boat.

Tomorrow will be slow. Probably no post until the weekend, wrapup of the Twenty20 and Tom's going away shindig.

Hurm.

Crossposted.

Catchyas.

Odessa.

2011-01-09T03:05:00.001-08:00

'Lo all.

Very little to write about, as usual.

It's been far too damn hot.

Last night, I was enjoying a quiet night chatting to randoms on facebook, then I figure I should probably check my phone. No idea what came over me. 6 missed calls and a buttload of messages. Suddenly there's half a dozen kids in my backyard encouraging me to go out. Rubbish.

So, went out with the usual crowd. Jake's moving to Traralgon so it was good to catch up with him, even if he's taking it easy at the moment, and Brad kept telling me to come and jam with him, which is an offer I'm very tempted to take up. Meg and Annie seemed a little gone already. Sam encouraged Aiden to try chilli infused vodka at the Star. Apparently it's a very enjoyable experience. We then got some stories from the bartenders about the world's hottest burger in Traralgon. Not much was going on, really. JR was djing at Kas, saw a few kids out. Sam got punched in the face and I got knocked over as a brawl erupted in Ringer's, we all laughed. Ended up chatting to Cheezy, British and some random guy about the Big Day Out and cricket. British had a pipe. Very classy. The outback bar is so good, I only went into the main bar to get money, or when I got dragged in once by Emily where we watched Wingram shuffle.

After lights, headed to maccas, where there was a small, mostly drunken crowd standing around. Chatted to some girls, enjoyed some burgers, and walked home. Lots of coppers around.

I kind of regretted going out at all this morning, after four hours sleep when I dragged myself to work still a little drunk. At least it makes the day go faster... maybe that was Petro's singing though. I practically collapsed when I got home.

Primer - ***
Very slow pace, but they rush everything. You're on the back foot the whole time. To be honest, I liked it for this, but everything was left open and unexplained at the end, and not in a good way.

Tomorrow, heading to Lakes with Aiden, going to get schooled by Tom.

Crossposted.

Catchyas.

Third Man.

2011-01-07T02:45:00.000-08:00

'Lo everyone.

Right, what have we got.

I'm trying to keep updating regularly, because this motivates me to get out of the house and do stuff to write about.

The other day, hit the pub and caught up with Aiden, finally got a good account of the shenanigans at Isaac's and Marlay Point. Bastards had a good time, I will admit to being a little jealous. If only there was a way of combining the horde and awesome bands at Falls...

Anyway, so $2 pots, we got sozzled with Jason and his mates, played a couple of games of pool, ended up back at Jason's after a maccas run watching the Simpsons and the cricket.

Next day, raced down to Bairnsdale and back in order to pick up a new iPod. How awesome. You break one, they just give you a new one. Unfortunately, so far it's taken two days to put only half of my music back on it. STILL!

While I remember.

The Proposition - ****
Not bad for a western. Very Nick Cave, especially John Hurt's character, and the entire, graphic ending. Loving the soundtrack as well, though I might be a bit biased. It's a familiar sort of story, but it's just an interesting take on it by setting it in colonial Australia. Did not like David Wenham's overacting. Check it out.

Watched Eternal Sunshine again last night too off a hot tip, forgot how depressing it is. Fun fact, first time I watched it was almost exactly a year ago.

Today, forced myself out of the shed to prevent myself from melting, decided to go down the street and investigate replacements for my brick. It's all very complicated and stupid because all the companies want you to go with them over the other, so they're all good and bad at the same time. If only I could keep my old SIM. I might end up going with a Galaxy, but I'm weary because it's on a plan, which could cause problems. Learnt how to play the riff to Ball and Biscuit too. I need a slide thingy.

I also got the first reply in my quest to find accommodation for uni, from Unilodge at Swinburne. They want me to move out, or at least start paying, this week. Hurm. Need to wait til offers come out, which is frustrating.

Right now I could be sitting in a pub in Melbourne waiting patiently for Sleigh Bells to deafen me. Tomorrow night I could be watching FlyLo, or Digitalism. Monday night I could be rocking out to The Middle East and the National again. Hurm. A little depressing, I suppose. Just makes me want to move to Melbourne more, dammit.

By the way, anyone who likes Queens of the Stone Age should come and see them with Annie and I in March, they're playing their whole first album, which is incredible.

Tomorrow will probably be a lot of lazing around, might hit the pub, I dunno. We'll see, I suppose.

Crossposted.

Anyway, the end.

High Five, Swan Dive, Nose Dive.

2011-01-04T02:38:00.000-08:00

'Lo all.

Hot damn. I'll take two.

So yeah, the recovery from Falls has been surprisingly harsh. I blame having to go to work. Oh well.

Work itself was alright, felt so sorry for Sammy when he realised Justice had played the day before instead of in March. Saw Ms Dosser having lunch. Pete's pizzas are awesome, if you're going to Bis for food, I highly recommend them.

Ran into George and Emily on my way home on Sunday, then Jess, Boondi, and Annie, before having chips with Ryan and Denny. It was good to catch up with everyone. George, Emily and I helped an old guy who fell over.

Next day, more of the same, work, George came over, had a discussion with the bloke in Leading Edge. He's pretty awesome.

Today I ambled down the street after finding a set of car keys, fixed up some stuff then ran into everyone again. Hung around with Alison, Jordan, George and the horde, didn't really do much. Wound up in maccas with Emily, Annie and Alison playing with happy meal toys.

Oh yeah, first film of the year, I've been told to watch it so many times, so I figured I'd better pick it up.

Into the Wild - ****
The kid was surprisingly whiny. And everything was so depressing. But it was good. Loving the Eddie Vedder soundtrack too. Definitely sort of appealling to the same crowd that Theroux or Kerouac novels do. But yeah, it definitely wasn't the standard hipster indie film I was expecting.

Hurm. Hurm hurm hurm.

Tomorrow, might be more work, apparently poor old Jordz and Pete have been getting slammed last week. Dunno what else. See how we go. I need new things to write about, don't I.

Crossposted.

peace.

Falls.

2011-01-01T08:31:00.001-08:00

'Lo ladies and gentlemen, we're back for 2011.

This is the long haul too, got a lot of material to cover.

So, better recap, christmas at Katie and James' new place, good to catch up with everyone, game of cricket, lots of wholesome family fun. Then had to stand up on the train to the G with Beardman to watch Australia get hammered, which was disappointing. After that, visited Ocean Grove, went shopping with Katie, and packed my bags.

Next day was ever so much fun. Had to stand between to carriages all the way to Melbourne, jumped on a full Skybus and watched the awful TV, then waited in the airport for an hour to check in to open. Bloody Tiger. So, so cheap. At least the flight was uneventful.

Arrived in Hobart, got some directions from Claire, and walked over to where they were all staying, we caught up in the kitchen building. Shona and Geordie beat Jake and Shae at improvised table tennis, and there was a group of twentysomethings that had a big banner for their car with a Dazed and Confused quote painted on it (and they loved me for recognising it). That evening, Geordie and Amelia managed to make a new friend at the petrol station. I stuck around with Claire, Isobelle and Shae while Jake and James followed them, they returned all giggly. Very amusing.

Up early the next morning, Jake, Isobelle and I walked over the hill to the airport to catch a bus with everyone else. Driver was kind enough to stop for a sausage sizzle, saying that it was the cheapest food we'd get outside the festival itself. Then onto another shuttle bus to get through the gates to the bag check, where ourpacks were briefly glanced at and determined to not have alcohol. We were outraged. So much grog could have been hidden inside sleeping bags which weren't checked. Oh well.

Headed out to find a campsite, found a nice big one down a hill that was very close to two lanes and the stage itself. The girls found one that they insisted was better, we figured it must have had more guys there or something. Jake and James convinced them to come over by stealing the big communal tent, which we quickly set up. All the tents got up pretty quick, which was good.

Had a bit of a look around after that, there wasn't much going on. The first day had a couple of DJ sets but no real bands, so everyone was just exploring the place. I'm glad we got there early though, the spot we got was very good. Did a bit of people watching and making fun of the soundcheck guy, then visited The Village, which was all sideshows and stuff. We found two very drunk guys sitting in a tent that kept on playing the same riff over and over again, and telling us to hold on, as they were just the interval. They were hilarious. Much respect to Laszlo and Uncle Keith.

Next door, there was a burlesque show, but obviously this was extremely popular and crowded, so we visited another tent where Little Miss Rampage staple-gunned a ribbon to her chest, set a mousetrap off on her tongue, and put a cordless drill a few inches into her nose. Awesome. We did catch the end of the burlesque after that. Yay strippers! One poor guy got dragged on stage and humilated by a Russian dominatrix, hilarious.

Dragged Claire and Isobelle out of the tent to show them how cool The Village was, saw a very strange avant-garde hipster musical about Mary Mackillop in a shipping container which ended with Mary and a guy in a loincloth offering a communion of sakatas and goon to the audience, then we saw Mama Rosa, a batshit insane, moustachioed Italian stereotype woman. Crashed after that, not sure how.

Next morning, up very early. I dragged Shona and Isobelle out to the main stage to get a good spot on the barrier early, it was good to chill in the sun for a while though. First band up, opening the main stage, was Ben Wells and the Middle Names, a local band with a lot of friends in the audience. Not bad indie-ish rock, might have been better if Carlos the bassist's mates weren't yelling at him, but still.

Cloud Control was up after them. I'm not really a fan of this lot, a little too light for me, but every now and then it was like they flicked a switch and it was like Gareth Liddiard was leading The Drones into some heavy squealing noise. So yeah, not bad. All the triple J core kids were very appreciative.

Ran up the hill for some lunch, got talked into getting some kofta balls off the vegetarian Hare Krshna stand. They were awesome, we all got addicted to them. They tasted good, and they were really cheap. Went back down the hill out of curiousity about the Daara J Family, who were a couple of Senegalese rappers. They were so energetic and enthusiastic, we had barely any idea what they were rapping about, but they got the crowd dancing and yelling. The power went out on them with like two songs to go, which wasn't cool, but they were saved by their awesome live drummer.

Next up, the Beautiful Girls, who Shona was hanging out for. I had no idea who they were, turns out acoustic-y surfer rock. The only highlight of this set was the big last chorus of Pearl Jam's Black that they belted out. Other than that, we came under siege from the hordes of sweaty bogans who had already hit the piss. Not a fun crowd, though there was a guy being passed around sitting in a camp chair on top of everyone.

Since I was waiting for Tame Impala, I stuck around a couple of rows back in the mosh for Cold War Kids. I knew one of their songs from the radio. They seemed kind of bored and distracted, so I dunno. Not really that impressed.

Then Ladyhawke rolled onstage, pretty good stuff, but yeah, not really my kind of thing. Good mosh pit for My Delirium though. We saw Nick and Jay from Tame Impala on the side of the stage watching, which was pretty awesome. While we waited for them to set up, James introduced me to his friend Bec, who has an awesome taste in music. We sang along with the crowd to Bohemian Rhapsody as it got piped out.

So we stuck together for Tame Impala, and it was incredible, they've definitely improved since BDO. I would have liked some more from the EP, but still, got everything I wanted except Lucidity, even got the big psych out ending to Runway Houses City Clouds. And they jammed! That was really cool, they just rolled with it. Bogans in the crowd who only knew Remember Me seemed to be getting impatient though. But it was a good, chilled out set until the ending, when they stretched out Desire Be Desire Go, then thundered into Skeleton Tiger and Half Full Glass of Wine. Really good set. Grabbed a Mother from a kid who looked like he was twelve in a kiosk right next to the stage. Lucky bastard.

Once the bogans left, I encouraged James to come and watch The National with me, and we got a spot about two rows back from the fence, and some nice hipsters gave us Nodoze. They kicked absolute arse, opened with Mistaken For Strangers, and we got almost all the good stuff from High Violet. There was one drunk bogan in the crowd holding onto a beer and looking around cautiously, as if he was afraid to just join in, which made me laugh. Poor kid. Conversation 16 was awesome, as was Fake Empire. Didn't play England or Lit Up though, but still. After this, a lady came out and announced that Sleigh Bells were stuck at JFK airport in New York after a massive blizzard, and wouldn't be able to make it. I was cut.

Unfortunately, all of the bogans returned for the Rapture because they knew No Sex for Ben. I ended up all contorted and immobile about four songs in, though Pieces of the People We Love was a good opener. The lead singer kept diving off the stage, which would have been fun if the shirtless masses hadn't been yelling for No Sex for Ben.

Escaped the mosh at this point, grabbed a beer with Jake and James and found the rest on the hill for The Living End. Not a bad set, I'm glad they played Prisoner of Society. Claire was loving it, and hell, Chris Cheney riding around playing a solo on top of a double bass is pretty damn cool.

We retreated back up the hill for more food before Joan Jett came on, then found a spot about halfway down the hill towards the stage. We weren't expecting much, but the band was nuts, opened with Bad Reputation which reminded everyone who they were. Joan herself looked a bit old between two younger punks.

Sleigh Bells replacement was a hyped up band who'd played on the smaller Field Stage earlier that afternoon, Kitty Daisy and Lewis. Now, I do get that it's one hell of a tough gig replacing one of the most hyped bands at the festival. But I just don't think that a hoedown was a good swap for noisecore. Anyway. We decided to quit at that stage, after dancing around a man with a lightup umbrella that looked like a tiedyed jellyfish.

Back at the tents, we hung around for a bit until A-Trak jumped onstage, then James convinced Amelia and I to join him in the mosh. What struck me the most, apart from the insane skill that this guy has actually manipulating the music, was how calm the 90% bogan crowd was. They kinda all just did their thing and tried to pick up the closest pair of tits. Which reminded me of Ringer's, sadly, except instead of sticky floors and a crap DJ just playing a Ministry of Sound cd, you had a massive lightshow and a guy at the front who knew what he was doing. Barbra Streisand and Robot Rock were pretty awesome, and James was very impressed with a Yeah Yeah Yeahs remix.

Started heading back as Beardyman took the stage. I'm a little disappointed in myself, should have stuck around, but it was 330am. Still, we could hear it pretty clearly from inside the tent. Beatboxing.

Again, we got up pretty early the next day, and wandered over to the Field Stage where a Tasmanian band called Guthrie were warming up. Geordie and Shae grabbed a couch, which was just lying around. The band was insane, Black Keys/Clutch/White Stripes blues, soaked in Jack Daniels, with plenty of riffs and slide guitar and just stomping. So cool. I want to keep an eye on these two. Devil Went Down to Tassie indeed.

Then a fairly big crowd arrived for Boy and Bear. It was so chilled out, and the crowd was loving it. The band seemed kinda shocked that they were getting such a good reception, which the crowd adored. After their set, rushed back over with Anna for The Middle East. Unfortunately, I missed the first few songs, which probably included Lonely. Damn. But still, they made a lot of noise, and the keyboard/flute girl was incredibly hot. Their song about Vietnam was really good, and we managed to catch The Darkest Side and Blood. Still.

Refuelled after that, as Washington started up. Watched her set from the hill as Isobelle drifted off to sleep. Megan Washington really is tiny. She did a cover of I Touch Myself, which James and Shona took off for. I encouraged everyone to dive into the mosh for Children Collide, then found myself a spot one or two rows from the barrier.

They went off. Channelling a bit of Cobain with the whole thrashing around the stage. Crowd was so good too, no bogans trying to force their way forward, just a whole lot of people jumping around and getting sprayed by hoses. Would have liked Complacency No Vacancy, but hell, Across the Earth and Jellylegs made up for it. One of my favourite sets.

Met up with Bec and headed over to watch Ash Grunwald at the other stage, found the others and had a beer in the shade before joining the throng. Every song of his sounds kinda similar, but his slide solos were damn good, and I will always have respect if a band has a designated guy to just bash on scrap metal like a car door. He got the crowd singing along to John the Revelator, which was cool, but the White Stripes did it better.

Back to the main stage to catch the end of Hot Hot Heat's set, then James decided we should all go way up the front for Angus and Julia Stone. They were filling up giant hot air balloons and hanging them around the stage, then bringing out wooden clouds to surround the drum kit. Cool, I think, crowd'll be chilled, stage looks cool.

The typical bogan male is shirtless, sweaty, drunk, and bigger than just about everyone, and so uses this to it's advantage to push forward to the front, even if it doesn't know what's going on. The female bogan is almost the opposite, in that they just want their own place to dance, but that place has to be at the front. You aren't allowed to push, because she will just push you back and scream at you, and possibly bite you, as one guy near me learnt. Angus and Julia obviously have enough crossover appeal for mainstream annoying 16 year olds, so there was a lot of pressure going forwards and lots of girls jumping up on shoulders. I helped two girls who got knocked over by a bleached blonde whore, then figured bugger it, not really that good. Jumped out and got some more delicious kofta balls, then hung around looking for the others.

Public Enemy were up next, harnessing the bogan crowd by appealling to them with Flava Flav's reality stardom. I suppose their set was alright, I wasn't really paying much attention. They had two guys in full combat fatigues marching around on stage around the rappers, which would have been ever so much fun in the heat. Went back to the tent and found almost everyone chilling, which was good.

We split up after having another drink, and James and I took advantage of the bogan rush to the bar to get good spots near the front for Paul Kelly. He had a fun set, and I was surrounded by die hards who knew every single word. Before Too Long went off, but I'm still weary of Everything's Turning to White after bloody Jindabyne.

Managed to mosh my way forward for Interpol and found myself leaning over two girls on the barrier chatting to a guy who'd been waiting to see Interpol for eight years with his girlfriend. Gave Isobelle, who had been clinging onto the barrier for dear life all this time, my camera to take some good photos, and moshed. They had a pretty good set, Narc was really good and Barricade was a good screamalong. The lighting and stuff was really cool as well, very moody and dark, and I swear they replicated the Turn on the Bright Lights cover every now and then.

When they got off stage, Zan Rowe from triple J took control of the piped out music, and she played Seven Nation Army and Last Nite, which was cool. Suddenly it was 2 minutes to midnight, and Peaches appeared wearing a leotard made out of boobs with barbie doll heads on them, and almost completely missed out on the countdown. Still. Pretty funny.

Then we were in 2011, Klaxons roared onstage and launched themselves into Atlantis to Interzone. James went nuts beside me. They had an awesome set, I heard everything I wanted to hear, and hell, it just feels damn good to be a row back from the barrier, in front of twelve thousand people, watching a goddamn awesome band, at midnight on New Year's Eve. The band were into it as well, they said they didn't want to leave.

Isobelle and I literally jumped out of the mosh and gave James a spot on the barrier with Amelia when Klaxons finished, and found our way to water. There were hundreds of glowsticks in the space between the stage and the barrier. We watched some of Peaches DJ show from the hill for a bit, then realised she was just playing club songs while people in frilly outfits wandered around the stage. Meh. Went back to the tent and crashed like a motherbitch at around 3am.

This morning was so much fun, James woke me up at 615 as he had to leave with Shae to catch the early flight. Quickly demolished the tent, helped Claire pack up hers, and made it to the shuttle buses with her and Isobelle. Trip back into Hobart was pretty dull except for a paranoid copper who thought people without seats on the bus should be standing in the aisle and not sitting, which is weird. He threatened to fine the driver, who laughed it off as soon as he sped away.

Spent an hour and a half recovering over coffee and hot chocolate in the airport. We saw The Middle East checking in their luggage, which was cool, and the entire Public Enemy crew at the business class bit. Flava Flav was wearing his giant clock and was willing to have photos taken with girls. We saw Dan Sultan looking kind of haughty at the coffee place, then one of the DJs from the second day sat next to us. We thought he was the guy from Vampire Weekend, but apparently he was just a fill in. Either way, apparently we made his day when Isobelle asked him to sign her poster anyway, he was pretty cool. We saw the crowd again and said goodbye a second time, then checked in and hung around in the departure lounge. Plane trip was dull except for a bit of turbulence.

Land, find luggage, find Skybus (we followed a couple that we'd seen at every single band, they probably thought we were stalking them), find tickets home, then find food. We collapsed outside the cathedral on the grass where thousands of drunks probably pissed the night before eating an ungodly amount of maccas and subway, then went back to Flinders St and chilled. Isobelle took an early train, and Claire and I ate fancy jelly beans and bitched about music and ATAR scores the whole way home.

And here I am, checking the news websites and making sure I get all of this down before I forget it all. Next time, I'm bringing a car, either to Lorne or to Tassie again I don't know. It was cool to meet all these people who actually liked these bands, and it was cool to see some stuff I wouldn't have checked out normally. Made some new friends too, it's all good.

I'll probably post again when I know what's going on, I'm not sure if we'll get regular programming going for a while. Either way, happy new year, etc, etc.

Crossposted.

Catchyas.

2010 Wrap-up.

2011-01-01T04:07:00.000-08:00

'Lo all.

Well. That's another one down.

(I'm posting this late because I've been on holiday in Tasmania. Some of this has been drafted, it'll probably be kinda obvious which.)

Next couple of days are going to be messy. Going off to Geelong for actual christmas tonight. Next day off to the cricket, then a day recovering before jetting off to Tasmania for the Falls Festival. Going to see a lot of cool bands, with a writeup on new year's day. Then we'll resume regular programming.

Anyway. Hell. 2010. Year twelve and turning 18 and all that. Exciting stuff, I suppose.

Gotta say, school wasn't as difficult as I was expecting. Maybe it's because of the subjects I picked, I dunno. It was stressful, sure, with all the SACs and other random crap that popped up. Exams were good because apart from studying and worrying, there was enough room to breathe. And I think my results reflect this approach. I was never really going to get a 90, but I'm glad I got more than I expected.

Literature, being the most important class, was actually alright, I guess. It was cool to hang with Hayley for the first half of the year as we struggled through Hedda Gabler. Slaughterhouse 5 was actually enjoyable, and Keats was tedious but ultimately interesting. Ms Dosser's an absolute hero, she deserves all the praise she gets from her students.

History was enjoyable if only because of Mr Ries, I'm glad I signed up for it. Good class, and since the majority of it was just reproducing facts, it was easy to get a grip on the material.

Media was another one of those enjoyable classes, this time because we got a bit of creative freedom, and could argue opinions. Plus, hell, we got to watch Snatch. For some reason people think my cheap ad campaign is good, but I dunno. I just ripped off a whole lot of similar ads. Very amused when I later found a campaign that was about the same thing as mine from the NSW government.

What fun maths was, with poor old Bren-dog. Half the kids didn't care. I snoozed through most of it, admittedly. Bit of a bludge class. But the class itself was good, and Mr Brennan was forgiving enough to be around when I really needed help.

And of course biology. That was... interesting. The pracs were a lot of fun, and the actual subject matter. It was good fun going to Monash to play with some DNA (and win 4 free mars bars). I'm glad we didn't have to do any creationism stuff. I would have burnt the school down if we did.

I should probably mention my dear spare group as well. Playing the ball and cup game with Gavin, teasing Sarah about her age, annoying Georgia while she tried to read, and playing hundreds of games of solitaire. It was good that it was so chilled. Good times.

What else have we got. School was alright. Muckup day was awful. Seriously. Next year, kids, have the party the night AFTER, not the night before. We were so tired, and I guess it showed. No one really enjoyed themselves that day. Kinda felt sorry for the crowd too, they were used to being entertained. I might blame the teachers a little as well, every speech about us related that we were "funloving troublemakers", so naturally they cut our balls off and supervised us the whole time to prevent anything untoward occuring. Bastards.

It was good to see the majority of kids turning eighteen too. The parties were fun, the nights wasted in Ringer's weren't, I guess. Salefest was a highlight though. Tom's quest to get wasted with the goonbag was hilarious, and it was a lot of fun to escort Meg in as she turned 18 that night, then moshing with Tom, Annie, Alison and Meg all night. THEN, waking up after four hours sleep to take a bus to Melbourne. Woo.

More generally, this year has been awesome for music. Today I voted in triple j's hottest 100, and the scope of the stuff that they mentioned was mind boggling. I'd like to thank the world's worst imageboard for exposing me to some crazy stuff, loving some of this crazy glitch stuff. Pitchfork was good for news, despite it being so pretentious it hurt. Favourite album of the year would have to be either Innerspeaker by Tame Impala, or Sleigh Bell's Treats. Check em out if you haven't already, though I'm sure I've shouted about them enough.

Films too, I guess. Inception was good. I've watched too many dvds, as you'll have seen from yesterday's review post. Was blown away by Oldboy and Requiem for a Dream. Awesome films.

It was good to keep working at both Bis and the chemist's. Yesterday I briefly attended the Bis christmas breakup, and they're all just great people, and skilled at beer pong. For all the whinging about the drowning in customers, and denying me a couple of shifts, I still like working there with them.

Carlton did a little better this year, which is good. Australia suddenly sucks at cricket, though we'll see how they go in the next test.

The internet, no matter how terrifying, is still an awesome place. I swear to god though, they should have some sort of licence test before they let people use facebook. The stupid hurts sometimes. Goddamn. No one cares if you're "loving life", and no one cares what stupid things you "like". Bad.

Funnily enough, that's all first world problems, I suppose. World's going to hell even faster. As I write, South Korea's agitating Best Korea. I wonder if I'll even get to post this in a couple of days. Amusing, none the less. I'm sick of the casual racism and violence here though. It's a neverending, vicious circle. Annoying though. Since I haven't been beaten up in Ringer's this year, I figure I'll probably get jobbed in Melbourne or something, oh well.

The family's doing well. Right now Beardman's working on his weather station, by extending it up another meter or two on a broomstick. Fraser's starting to realise what an idiot he is, I think the responsibility from being vice captain at his school sunk in a bit. Sisters are typical ten year olds. Dad's in for an interesting next couple of years with them.

All of my friends, you know how much I love/hate (mostly hate) you all. Not just the oldies I've known since preps, not just the mates that have stuck for all of grammar, not even the new friends we always run into in Ringer's, all of you. I'd probably be dead by now if it weren't for you bastards, and I'm genuinely sad that I won't be able to hang out with most of you next year. Keep in touch.

And that's the closest thing you'll get to actual sentiment here, by the way.

So what does next year hold? I mean, after the Big Day Out, I'm moving to Melbz with the first wave of non-gap-year kids. I figure I'll survive. Hopefully everything will just go smoothly. Move, find work, start course, don't get stabbed, the usual.

Um. Yeah. Twenty Ten, we hardly knew ye.

See you all on the other side, I guess.

peace.

Movie Edition 2010.

2010-12-23T04:36:00.000-08:00

Hey kiddies, by now you should know the drill, this is just so I can make sure I know what I've seen this year. It's been a good year too. Maybe not at the cinema, but still. Wrap up tomorrow night!

Being John Malkovich - ****1/2
Pretty good, very original, and I liked the whole ending. And the trip sequences. Probably would have liked it better if the dvd player worked properly.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - *****
This is a good film. Really good. Very sad, but still good. It's twisted, and you can see things coming in a good way, but there's still surprises, specially in the subplots. Excellent movie, go and find it.

The Square - ****
Enjoyed this one, Australian neo-noir with the girl from the cop show and heaps of other familar faces like Julian from The Chasers. Harry Knowles thought it was one of the best films of the year for some reason. Still pretty good.

Up - ***1/2
It's Pixar, so it's excellent, but maybe this was a bit too much of a kiddie story, or an adult story. Bit of both. Seemed too short too.

Airheads - ***
Funny, not particularly awesome. Focused on the wrong early nineties music scene. So nineties it even had a cameo from Beavis and Butthead.

Hedda Gabler (50s) - **
Dull. Lots of unintended double entendres. Crappy camera work, acting and music. Bonus star for being amusing.

Alice in Wonderland - ***
Well, Alice herself, she was hot. The rest, not so much. Plot seemed a bit all over the place, then far too linear; Johnny Depp was doing the Hunter S. Thompson/Cap'n Jack thing with a funny accent, and the cgi was awkward and bad. Tim Burton seemed to have none of the visual flair he had in his other movies, I thought. I mean, the cards are cool, but everything else was a bit bland. But then, he's a Disney cash-cow at the moment, so he'll make billions off the Jayjays wannabe-mallgoth teenage-girls-with-painted-faces crowd. Meh. Would watch anything that Alice girl is in next though.

Under Great White Northern Lights - *****
If anything, there needs to be more footage. Catch Hell Blues, Blue Orchid, Icky Thump and Death Letter are standouts. I have new respect for Meg. Very good film.

Daft Punk's Electroma - ***
Too arty, too slow, but the visuals and soundtrack are very good. I liked the contrast change towards the beginning and the very last shot, not so much the long walk through the desert. Not bad, maybe not for everyone.

Elephant - ****
Genuinely chilling, based of a true story about a school shooting in the States. Was made all Memento style as well. Except for the gay scenes, which seemed tacked on and unneccessary (unless to gross us out, which it did), it was an excellent movie. The FPS scenes in particular were clever.

A Night At The Roxbury - ***
It's dated, but it's still funny. Prototype Will Ferrell, I reckon. Worth seeing. And that goddamn Haddaway song was stuck in my head, sucked.

Clash of the Titans - **
Crap script, crap acting, crap story (seriously, wtf Zeus), but I guess it looked good. Some bits seemed stolen right out of Lord of the Rings (looking at you mountain-walky-scenes and saddled scorpions), and both the Stonem siblings from Skins were in there, which was strange. I dunno.

Baseketball - ****
Really funny. A little dated, but very funny. Dunno about the Randy and Cartman cameos, but meh. Good.

Iron Man 2 - ****1/2
Best bit, by far, was the drunken brawl between two suits set to Daft Punk's Robot Rock. Very satisfying film, for all the slow bits and deus ex machinae and jaw dropping suspension of belief ("Congratulations, you have invented a new element" springs to mind), it was really good. Go see it, totally worth it.

Dogma - ***1/2
Funny bits, too many slow bits, predictable as buggery except for the big deus ex machina. Some good calls in it though.

Slaughterhouse Five - **1/2
Someone who hadn't read the book would not understand this. I didn't like it. Some bits were good. But they skimped on the aliens, and for that, minus a million.

Robin Hood - ***
Not fantastic, not woefully terrible either. The ending is unsatisfying, it seem ed that the entire movie was just one big introduction, there was no stealing from the rich to give to the poor apart from one scene. Lots of big battles, rousing speeches, all that crap. Meh, says I.

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner - ***1/2.
A little dated, but not bad. Kinda slow too, pretty preachy. Girl was hot.

Exit Through the Gift Shop - *****
It's a clever film. I don't know if I want to give it all away here. But Banksy's got the joke on the audience here. He's got the joke on everyone in the movie, pretty much. Very funny, and pretty awesome at times. I like that they went into Shepard Fairey as well. Guetta was so annoying though. Watch it if you can find it.

Toy Story 3 - ****1/2
The short at the start was clever, not as good as the birds one or Presto. Movie itself was excellent. The 3D wasn't INYOURFACEOMGLOOKHOW3DITIS! all the time, which is good. Plot was good, but it was similar to the second one. Got pretty intense towards the end. Still funny, still awesome at times, it felt a little rushed towards the end, but still damn good. Kinda relevant to us too, cos it's all about heading off to uni and leaving childhood behind. That or it's a metaphor for the holocaust, I'm not sure which yet.

Detroit Rock City - ****
Surprised me. This was actually pretty good. I'd swap Kiss for something a little... better, but other than that, very good film. Hangover-esque

Pan's Labyrinth - *****
Excellent film. Was not expecting the ending, it usually never happens. Was equally fascinated by the Captain's story and the fantasy bit, I just wish it went for longer

Daybreakers - ***1/2
It needed more development in the first half, once it hits the second act it loses steam, and the end is meh because it just ends. There's a lot of consequences that the ending implies. I think it wants a sequel, but this is not the most effective way to set it up. The Yank accents seemed a bit forced at time, and Isabel Lucas is neither a good actress nor is she attractive.

The Road - ****1/2
Relentlessly depressing, in a good way. This is another film where I wanted more. Cinematography was excellent. Kinda guessed the ending.

Silence of the Lambs - *****
Seen bits and pieces of this over the years, was good to sit down and watch it properly. Got sick of Jodie Foster's accent quickly. Really good movie. Dunno about rewatchability, unfortunately.

Hannibal - ***
The "OMG SO EXCITING" cuts and colour changes and random camera effects pissed me off. Yes, we understand that something important has happened. We don't need BIG FLASHY SPECIAL EFFECTS. Again, the accent of the main character pissed me off. Some bits seemed unneccessary. Ending was the best bit. That or the execution in Florence, I dunno.

Red Dragon - ***1/2
Interesting sort of plot. Subplot was good, for once. No annoying camera wiggling around. I liked the burning wheelchair bit. Not as good as the first one. Another tense ending, was good.

American Psycho - ****1/2
Entertaining, but occasionally a little slow. Ending was enjoyably open ended. The chainsaw bit was awesome. Thanks Tom.

Oldboy - ****1/2
The biggest mind-screw I have seen all year. Pacing's a little off, and I kinda guessed the ending fairly early, and there's a middle bit which is so confusing. But my god. Original story, awesome cinematography, and the violence is pretty cool. Tooth pulling and hammer fights and such. Worth watching, should probably lend it to Tom.

Leon: The Professional - ****
A bit clunky at times, but it's pretty good. Characters were interesting enough, action scenes were sufficiently awesome, and I'd watch a whole movie of Leon and his plant.

Trainspotting - *****
Taken me a while to get around to watching this one. Awesome, right from the start when they played Lust for Life. I like trippy movies and this one is awesome for trippiness. Soundtrack was good too, Danny Boyle really seems to like Iggy Pop. I liked this movie a lot.

Requiem for a Dream - *****
After Trainspotting last night, was interesting to compare these two films. This one's pretty good. Not sure which is better, though Trainspotting had the happier ending and humour. Here, the editing gimmickry adds to it all. Ending is confrontingly awesome. Definitely worth watching.

Hard Candy - *****
Woah. Was not expecting this. Pretty awesome. The cinematography in particular was weird. In a good way. Bloke from Watchmen is suitably creepy, girl from Juno seems a bit too old. But it's an original story, which is really what I'm looking for.

Inception - *********
It's a Nolan film, it's gotta be pretty good. If I may quote AICN, it "exceeds expectations". I've been watching a lot of excellent films in the last few weeks, and this one is as good if not better than the best of them. This is the sort of film I've been waiting for. It's deep, and you need to concentrate, but it all makes sense if you've been watching closely. There's subtle humour, love story isn't too over the top (except for the subplot), and my god, the action sequences. There's a sense of subtlety to everything that just builds and builds, and then the ending, which drags out a bit, just intensfies it a bit. That would be my only criticism, that the ending just seems to go on and on while nothing is happening. But the zero-g action sequences, and the Ocean's Eleven style team setup bits, and the sheer grandness of the idea, of dreams within dreams; that's just insane.

In The Attic: Who Has a Birthday Today? - ***1/2
Czechoslovakian Toy Story set in a Soviet-Era attic. Very creative, but it's still a kids film. Kruschev bust thing was pretty freaky.

1981 - ****
Clever film, preachy morals, but it's funny. French Canadian. I can see why it was made when it was made, what with it's "living within your means" thing. Not a bad film.

Moon - *****
Go see this film, it's awesome. Very sad, raises a lot of big questions, and the visuals are amazing. Think Fight Club crossed with 2001 or Star Wars or Alien.

The Royal Tenembaums - ***
Not as funny as I'd hoped, good, messed up story, trademark Wes Anderson visuals. Life Aquatic was way better.

The Expendables - ****
Big, stupid action. Huge budget Steven Seagal film. What's that, you want plot? You want character development? You want drama? No! You get mindless, badarse action. People getting blown in half and decapitated and stuff. This is 300-with-guns. Good film. Grows you chest hair.

Zombieland - *****
I like this film. Might have been because I read World War Z last week. Bill Murray is awesome. End scene is excellent.

The Warriors - *****
Another really good film, been on my list for ages. Not as violent as was advertised, and the costumes are a little off (dunno about the baseball bat guys), but a fun watch. Will watch again, and make sure everyone else does too.

Splice - ****
Dragged a bit, and you need a lot of suspension of disbelief (where is all the money coming from is the first question), but it's a pretty damn good film until the last half hour or so, then it gets weird. And it gets so weird, you're all like, this can't get any weirder, but THEN IT DOES. I've seen a lot of messed up films this year, but this one is pretty close to the top of the most messed up movies list.

The Game - ****1/2
Fincher film, can definitely see how Fight Club developed after this, and Zodiac (he seems to like San Fransisco). Very interesting, and it's claustrophobic by the end. I reckon the ending isn't real though, it just seems like too much.

Bowling for Columbine - ***
Michael Moore is a dick. And yes, it's a tragic story and all that, but he's just a dick. Glorified Today Tonight report, sometimes. Still. It's interesting. The ending cut out on me, which is annoying.

I'm Not There - ***
Disjointed, but not bad. Killer soundtrack, and some of the visuals are pretty good in the trip out sequences.

Beerfest - ****
Very funny cept the ending cut out on us. I wonder if this inspired Sam.

Repo Men - ****
Except for the laggy middle bit, OH GOD HOLY AWESOME. It's like a Guy Richie film crossed with Daybreakers. The opening was excellent, I liked all the subtle bits, and the ending was literally mindblowing. The hallway fight scene with the hammer reminded me of Oldboy, made me smile. Go see it, good film.

It Might Get Loud - ****
Much like watching Dave Grohl playing with JP Jones and Jimmy Page, it was so cool to see Jack White meeting his hero and playing along with him. Dunno about The Edge, it seemed that his bit was always "I push a lot of buttons and play simple riffs". They needed more time on Jimmy, especially at Headley Grange. The Levee Breaks bit was insane, and the last jam, over In My Time of Dying, was incredible. Worth watching, if you're a fan.

Good Night, and Good Luck - *****
Woah. Understated but awesome film. It just builds tension so well, even though you know what's going to happen. Tony Stark and wife plot seemed a bit tacked on, but still. The ending seemed genuinely powerful, and hell, I agreed with what he was saying. One for the Mad Men fans, this is right up your alley.

There Will Be Blood - ****1/2
Woah. The pacing's a little off, sometimes it just seems to drag, but woah. The last scene. Creepy, creepy preachers. Excellent film.

Se7en - ****
A little predictable towards the end. A fun ride, very gorey, nice soundtrack, Morgan Freeman. Can definitely see the development Fincher had between this and Fight Club.

The Men Who Stare at Goats - ***1/2
This is a very silly film. But hey, it's my kind of silly. Only problem is it seems to double back on itself and it kind of goes nowhere. But I can't argue with the main premise, which is all the crazy government conspiracies about weird crap in the military. Surprisingly awesome film.

The Fountain - **1/2
Trippy visuals, but it makes no sense on first viewing and really seems to go nowhere. I think there's a five minute sequence towards the end that would work as a Tool video. Reminded me of Requiem for a Dream messed up with Splice. Still interested in seeing Black Swan and whatever Aronofsky salvages out of Wolverine. Interesting director, I'll give him that.

Bad Boy Bubby - ****
Deliriously twisted. Just when you think it can't get any weirder, it does. Very Australian too, plus the by the end the band was practically The Birthday Party. Good film, but definitely not for the faint hearted.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows pt 1 - ***1/2
Faithful to the book in that there's a lot of boring camping and angst. But some nice subtle humour, and the opening is very cool. I'd swap half the camping to fill in some more blanks though. Nick Cave on the soundtrack, my jaw dropped. Gets another star just for that. Hopefully when the next one comes out they'll have a back to back screening.

Frost/Nixon - ****
Actually very gripping, but you end up wanting to punch Frost. Worth seeing if you're into this sort of intrigue crap, I guess.

Scott Pilgrim vs the World - **
One star of that is for the soundtrack exclusively. Very disappointing. No wonder it bombed, it was just all over the place, there's no audience for it to appeal to. It tries to be funny, but fails because it's Michael Cera. It tries to be an action flick, but fails because the concept of Michael Cera using kung fu/flaming lightsabers/hadouken/etc is just wrong. Also, the only bad guy who seemed interesting was finished very quickly. Tried to be a girly romance thing as well, which devolved into whininess. There is a problem in a film that revolves around getting a girl when the girl in questio is hot but just a terrible and unattractive person. Eternal Sunshine did the hair changing thing better. And the videogame references just seemed to be there. I mean, yeah it's cool, I suppose, but why? Not really that entertaining. Except the soundtrack.

Planet Terror - ***1/2
Watched this with Denny. Good for what it is, which is a wannabe b-movie about zombies with actual moviestars everywhere. Very stupid but pretty cool despite this.

No Country for Old Men - *****
Probably one of the best films I've seen this year, and I've seen a lot. Paced just right, lot of tension. Plus hell, killing someone with an oxygen bottle is cool.

Chopper - ***
Seemed too short, and jumped around too much. Not a bad film. Reminded me of bloody Underbelly a little. Still, hearing Sale mentioned is a little special.

Crank/Crank: High Voltage - **********
AAAH awesome purified. Gotta watch them one after the other though. Just so stupid, but it's actually good. Was expecting Richard D. James' limo to roll up and Windowlicker to start blaring at any moment as well, bonus star for that. Very good pair of films.

In Bruges - ****
Slow, but subtle and eventually just stupidly funny. Reminded me of Burn After Reading, but in Europe with insane Englishmen.

Nightwatch - *
Something must have been lost in translation here, it just didn't make sense and ended up being far too melodramatic. Trying too hard to be cool, with it's annoying cuts and metal soundtrack. Not really interested in watching the sequel either.

Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus - 1/2
Watch when inebriated. Only when inebriated. Nothing redeeming about this film apart from how unintentionally hilarious it is.

Raw & Delirious - ***1/2
Eddie Murphy used to be hilarious, what happened.

Easy A - ***
Decent story, very hot lead character, though predictable by the end. Sort of like a smarter Mean Girls. Still pretty funny.

Ghost World - **1/2
Ryan and I aren't sure about this one. On one hand, it's basically live action Daria, a listless musing about Gen X and how pointless it all is. One of those indie/oscarbait films. I mean, it was amusing sometimes. But it didn't really go anywhere. Which is probably what it aimed to do anyway.

In the Loop - ****
Again, a little slow, but it's very good if only for the foul-mouthed media guy. Worth seeing if you have patience, I guess.

Ronin - ****
Not a bad action flick, definitely takes a couple of cues from the first Mission Impossible. Suffered from the whole "something exciting is happening, it should catch on fire" thing.

The Basketball Diaries - ***1/2
Reminded me a lot of Scar Tissue. Some pretty trippy sequences. Not bad at all.

Synedoche New York - **1/2
Kaufman being Kaufman. Seemed to spend too long establishing a fairly normal world then just scrunching it up and throwing it away with no explanation. At all. Things just got so weird... Yeah. A bit of a struggle to get through, but pretty good by the end, I suppose.

Megamind - ****
It's an enjoyable Will Ferrel in Anchorman mode film. Cast was impressive, and the layering of the jokes was skilled, we couldn't stop giggling at the Obama posters. Soundtrack was pretty good too. Not a bad kid's film at all, may as well check it out.

Crossposted.

peace.

Out of Sight.

2010-12-20T02:04:00.000-08:00

'Lo readers.

Right... where were we...

Since last week, haven't reaaally done much.

I did hit Traralgon, and it was dull.

Nothing else for the rest of last week is springing to mind. God help us all.

Synedoche New York - **1/2
Kaufman being Kaufman. Seemed to spend too long establishing a fairly normal world then just scrunching it up and throwing it away with no explanation. At all. Things just got so weird... Yeah. A bit of a struggle to get through, but pretty good by the end, I suppose.

On Friday night, went out with the usual suspects, saw the Cuzzy Bros again, met a new friend, had to laugh at the WKD promotion in Ringer's. Buy two, get a free turkey headdress. Jake liked it, at least. Meg, Jake, Sam and I rescued a pair of squalling kittens from the street, it was awesome. Sam's mum was not impressed. Meanwhile, back at the ranch (which I had to return to as I'd misplaced my bank card), Beardman was making Fraser, Shane and his new missus Jess look for his glasses in the rain around the fire. Strange. Returned home afterwards with Meg since she couldn't stay at Brad's, couldn't put her in the spare room as it was occupied. We lol'd.

Next day, not much going on, sat around watching the cricket all day. Hit the Star with Aiden for some pool, then visited Kas. Meh.

Then Sunday was work, got told to go to the christmas breakup at Bec's. Ok, says I. It was fun to hang with the chefs, who are all beerpong pros. Pete bet me soundly. I wish I could have stayed for a few more beers, but oh well.

Ran all the way across town in the rain to meet with the horde. Made it in time for the movie too.

Megamind - ****
It's an enjoyable Will Ferrel in Anchorman mode film. Cast was impressive, and the layering of the jokes was skilled, we couldn't stop giggling at the Obama posters. Soundtrack was pretty good too. Not a bad kid's film at all, may as well check it out.

Hit maccas afterwards, Denny explained that he was halfway through pimping his panel van, The Sex. Massive soundsystem, he promised. Today, he drove around to show it off. Very impressive.

Um. Bought myself a guitar because I am so very bored. I can play bits and pieces of songs, getting the hang of the thing. Give me another two years and I'll show you.

This week is all about christmas, I guess. I'll be posting again, then chucking up the movie list, then doing the wrapup early on christmas eve. I'm drafting it now, actually. Not sure what to write about, but we'll see.

Crossposted.

Catchyas.

And The Earth Shook.

2010-12-13T02:38:00.001-08:00

'Lo all.

Still kicking, despite my best efforts.

What have we got...

I've been working a lot. Good thing and a bad thing. The company's worth sticking around for (Petro and Sammy the other day were hilarious and more than a little creepy), but goddamn I'm sick of functions. And people having lunch at 2pm. Stop doing that, all of you.

What else. Got my Ps, drove around happily in a raging thunderstorm listening to DFA79, then accidently nudged some guy's bumper. He was not happy. I was thoroughly amused. Had dinner at the Star that night to say goodbye to Potter. She's moving off to Ireland for a year, then NSW after that. Crazy. I've known her too long.

Next day, did an Aiden and just drove around for the drug run. Convenient. Then shackled into prizegiving, forced myself into uniform again. Snored through the actual thing. New school captains aren't particularly surprising. Once again Binks lost, but at least we didn't come last.

Friday night, work then drinking heavily. Pretty ordinary night, to be honest, chatted to April and Lucy in the Star before they got booted, then we ran into all these teachers. It's kind of bizarre getting a drunken hug off your year 2 teacher in a beer garden. As usual, Ringer's sucked. Saw a fight break out, laughed a lot at the stupid.

Saturday was quieter.

Ronin - ****
Not a bad action flick, definitely takes a couple of cues from the first Mission Impossible. Suffered from the whole "something exciting is happening, it should catch on fire" thing.

Then yesterday, had to start getting pumped. Naturally, this was done through waking up late and going to work without breakfast, so they donated hotcakes. Thanks lads.

Off to Isobelle's that evening, had a good chill sesh while waiting for some pizzas, then we devolved into mildly drunken shenanigans. Watched some films too, started off with Zombieland.

The Basketball Diaries - ***1/2
Reminded me a lot of Scar Tissue. Some pretty trippy sequences. Not bad at all.

Skipped From Dusk til Dawn on account of Tarantino's "acting", chatted to Aiden and Isobelle instead, then back in for Children of Men. As usual, it's depressing as hell. So, naturally, we finished off with Monty Python. Holy Grail. Good stuff at 4am. Crashed hard.

Was woken up three hours later by Tom yelling about his ATAR, then the girls all screaming when they jumped on the interbutt. Isobelle managed a 50 in english, well done. Denny and I, in our half-asleep states, could barely remember our student numbers. Either way, most of us got what we wanted, I think. I was expecting something between 80 and 85, and I got an 86.something. I'm very happy.

Then the ringarounds started, everyone had to know everyone else's scores. Not particularly interesting. James got dux, I think, with his 99.90, which is the second highest score you can get. Then we played Croc.

Aiden and I then tore off to maccas for food, and enjoyed many many burgers. Saw Fraser and Ryan. Went home, more fallout on facebook, don't care. Got some chips with Ryan to laugh about it all.

So yeah, now there's just one thing left, and that's the offers. Not for another month.

Tomorrow... nothing, I guess. Feel like a road trip. Maybe I'll go have a coffee in Traralgon or something, just cos I can.

Crossposted.

peace.

In the Loop.

2010-12-07T03:48:00.000-08:00

'Lo all.

Still alive. Suck it.

Haven't reaaally done a lot since Thursday.

Friday night, went out, small crowd, saw a lot of other kids I haven't seen in a while. Most of the teenagers were still away, so it was a little strange. Denny and I walked Jess and Annie home then he collapsed in the spare room.

On Sunday, woke up at 4pm, went round to Denny's for another one of his movie nights. This time, no Emily to tape herself to the floor. We got through a tonne of films, played a little minecraft, girls seemed bemused. At the end of the seventh dvd, we realised it was daytime, and Denny's family would be up soon. Walked over to Ryan's for one more. We got through Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus, Evolution, Eddie Murphy's Delirious, The Fifth Element, Oldboy, The Men Who Stare at Goats, Eddie Murphy's Raw, then Easy A at Ryan's.

Crashed at 8 in the morning on Ryan's couch. Woken up briefly by his dog and brother. Annie and Isobelle then woke us up properly at 1. Not cool. Bummed around a a bit, then kids drifted off. Ryan and I watched one more film, then I headed home.

Yesterday, tried to stave off sleep.

Anyway, better catch up on things.

In Bruges - ****
Slow, but subtle and eventually just stupidly funny. Reminded me of Burn After Reading, but in Europe with insane Englishmen.

Nightwatch - *
Something must have been lost in translation here, it just didn't make sense and ended up being far too melodramatic. Trying too hard to be cool, with it's annoying cuts and metal soundtrack. Not really interested in watching the sequel either.

Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus - 1/2
Watch when inebriated. Only when inebriated. Nothing redeeming about this film apart from how unintentionally hilarious it is.

Raw & Delirious - ***1/2
Eddie Murphy used to be hilarious, what happened.

Easy A - ***
Decent story, very hot lead character, though predictable by the end. Sort of like a smarter Mean Girls. Still pretty funny.

Ghost World - **1/2
Ryan and I aren't sure about this one. On one hand, it's basically live action Daria, a listless musing about Gen X and how pointless it all is. One of those indie/oscarbait films. I mean, it was amusing sometimes. But it didn't really go anywhere. Which is probably what it aimed to do anyway.

In the Loop - ****
Again, a little slow, but it's very good if only for the foul-mouthed media guy. Worth seeing if you have patience, I guess.

Um. For the next three days I'll probably be drunk. I've been told I need to go to school on Thursday. Definitely not keen at all.

Crossposted.

Catchyas.

Derezzed.

2010-12-01T01:57:00.000-08:00

'Lo all.

It's been a fair while.

My perception of time, and days, and things like that... it's all starting to go. I have gotten up at 5pm at least once. I'm currently in an awkward schedule of forcing (seriously) myself to sleep around probably 3 or 4, then waking up at 1 the next day. I'm worried that over time, things will get really weird, I'll go to sleep at dawn and wake up at night. But we've got a few days, I suppose.

So. In other news. World's all upside down and wrong, but we're laughing the whole way down at least.

Been out a couple of times, nothing particularly interesting. I got interrupted reading Anthony Kiedis' book at 2am by two drunk idiots and Denny, who proceeded to shout about certain women's tits extremely loudly, then rock out to Pearl Jam. I'd like to apologise to all the neighbours for that.

Next day, we got raped at work. It was Petro, Jordy and me against like a hundred old people when we were expecting fifty. Yeah. Fun. Aiden gave me a lift out to Sam's where we got a little drunk, played some Halo and zombie shooters, and made sure Patrick said an appropriate farewell before his campaign in Europe. Isaac may or may not have made out with the horse, which lead to him, Hayden and I searching the paddock for his phone the next morning.

The day after that, Meg persuaded us to go out to Kas and see the Cuzzy Bros. Not bad, but it was eerily quiet, and there's only so much acoustic psychedelia/Jacky J covers you can deal with. Still, they did a fine job, I'd see them again. Decided to go out properly the next night.

It rained. Wasn't bad, I suppose. Ended up in the back of Ringer's half watching soccer and trying to teach Jess how to play Pacman, I think. I was definitely drunk. Everyone started leaking out around 3, got out with Meg and swum our way back, dropped her off at her mate's place. It was pouring. Glass st was properly flooded. Worst part was, work in the morning. No hangover but I think each part of my body was shutting down over the day.

And I've watched a lot of movies.

Frost/Nixon - ****
Actually very gripping, but you end up wanting to punch Frost. Worth seeing if you're into this sort of intrigue crap, I guess.

Scott Pilgrim vs the World - **
One star of that is for the soundtrack exclusively. Very disappointing. No wonder it bombed, it was just all over the place, there's no audience for it to appeal to. It tries to be funny, but fails because it's Michael Cera. It tries to be an action flick, but fails because the concept of Michael Cera using kung fu/flaming lightsabers/hadouken/etc is just wrong. Also, the only bad guy who seemed interesting was finished very quickly. Tried to be a girly romance thing as well, which devolved into whininess. There is a problem in a film that revolves around getting a girl when the girl in questio is hot but just a terrible and unattractive person. Eternal Sunshine did the hair changing thing better. And the videogame references just seemed to be there. I mean, yeah it's cool, I suppose, but why? Not really that entertaining. Except the soundtrack.

Also found the Tron soundtrack by Daft Punk, every now and then there are these moments of just pure awesome. But it's still a film score, not another Discovery. Film looks pretty meh as well, to be honest.

Planet Terror - ***1/2
Watched this with Denny. Good for what it is, which is a wannabe b-movie about zombies with actual moviestars everywhere. Very stupid but pretty cool despite this.

No Country for Old Men - *****
Probably one of the best films I've seen this year, and I've seen a lot. Paced just right, lot of tension. Plus hell, killing someone with an oxygen bottle is cool.

Chopper - ***
Seemed too short, and jumped around too much. Not a bad film. Reminded me of bloody Underbelly a little. Still, hearing Sale mentioned is a little special.

Crank/Crank: High Voltage - **********
AAAH awesome purified. Gotta watch them one after the other though. Just so stupid, but it's actually good. Was expecting Richard D. James' limo to roll up and Windowlicker to start blaring at any moment as well, bonus star for that. Very good pair of films.

And I've still got three more to watch, plus the fourth season of 30 Rock, which I'm burning through.

Aren't I a productive citizen.

Tomorrow, chips, work, maybe karaoke, we'll see.

Also, BDO kiddies, apparently the timetable's up on Friday. Woot. So in for the Vines and Gareth Liddiard off the second announcement, btw.

Hell, this writing crap is cathartic.

Crossposted.

peace.

Valedictory, etc.

2010-11-20T02:15:00.000-08:00

'Lo everyone.

Right. You'll never guess. I'm tired.

Haven't really done a lot this week.

Went to Annie's after a couple of games of pool with Denny, it was a girl's night but we were invited to "gatecrash". Wasn't too bad, I suppose.

Next day, valedictory practice, lot of standing around and walking in and out. Meh.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows pt 1 - ***1/2
Faithful to the book in that there's a lot of boring camping and angst. But some nice subtle humour, and the opening is very cool. I'd swap half the camping to fill in some more blanks though. Nick Cave on the soundtrack, my jaw dropped. Gets another star just for that. Hopefully when the next one comes out they'll have a back to back screening.

After that, Aiden, Pat, Denny and I headed down to maccas. Isaac bought a burger in his stormtrooper outfit (at the cinema we had a halo guy, Harry, Hermione and Ginny, and Aiden was Draco but with pink hair (?)), then ran for his train. We decided to build a burger from scratch after watching mudwrestling. Did not know that pickles cost 30c. Got threatened with being kicked out, so we tried again at KFC. Pat managed to score some free chips.

Next day, suit up after driving the beardmobile around, meet everyone else. Most of the girls scrub up pretty good, as usual, except for the oompa loompas. Denny had a top hat. Service thing was dull, off to the hall. So hungry. Got some free food, listened to the speeches (they mentioned me and Ms Kulkewicz's adventures in year eight, and embarrassed the chaplain by mentioning April and Jasper's chapel exploits). Got a free Zeppelin book.

Hung around afterwards drinking beer and getting bloody photos taken. Ducked out around eleven to meet with everyone else at the pub. On the way, Isaac and Hayden got a talking to by some coppers for running around with a trolley. Isaac then shouted that they should find some real crime, like Scooby Doo and Batman. Hopefully they didn't hear him.

Get to the Star since Jack's is packed, jagerbombs, get some underagers in to have a look, then over to Jack's to hear the band murder the Violent Femmes and awkwardly make eye contact with the teachers who had also sought refuge there. More kids got kicked out, not cool I guess.

Kas next, Tom decided to hang around with Isobelle and his milk, caught up with Bernice and Clare and everyone else, and briefly saw my St Pat's buddies. Guy with a guitar was rocking some Chilli Peppers. Pretty meh. Saw Daewoo and Georgia, then headed out again to Ringadings.

By this time, I think we were all very drunk. Saw Skot and Cheesy, had a good discussion, and then Cheesy's mum. Danced, laughed at the stupid pickups occuring, and drunk an awful lot.

Suddenly it was 4am and the bouncers started kicking everyone out, so we left. Made sure Daewoo staggered to the motel, then made the long walk home. Everyone else seemed to get home ok, which is good. Walk in the door, flick on the lights, and Tom's on my floor and Isobelle's on my couch. Hurm.

Get up around 930, make sure Tom got to the train station, and practically collapsed. Isobelle and I found some breakfast, deconstructed the night before, then she nicked off. Caught up with Ryan and Bernice, who both had 4am maccas runs.

Bad Boy Bubby - ****
Deliriously twisted. Just when you think it can't get any weirder, it does. Very Australian too, plus the by the end the band was practically The Birthday Party. Good film, but definitely not for the faint hearted.

Tomorrow is probably work.

And so ends my time at Gippsland Grammar. Finally.

Crossposted.

Catchyas.

vaguely media related title

2010-11-16T02:39:00.000-08:00

'Lo everyone.

Title's a cop out because I'm tired, sue me.

Feels good to have finished secondary school properly, I must say.

So, since we last spoke, I've hit Ringer's twice, watched a film or two, and smashed media. Plus I may have had a couple of people around to celebrate said smashing.

Diana and PD came home Friday, which was awesome. Good to catch up, Demps is getting way taller.

Went out Friday with Steve, Meg and Jake, we ran into Gavin at Jack's, which was surprising but awesome. He was out with the outdoor ed people, and all of them were recovering from a week spent with the year nines. Poor bastards. Wasn't a bad night, I suppose, lot of St Pats kids out.

Next day, hit the study. Watched Slumdog. So sick of that film. Watched Rage, two of my favourite songs were on. Angus and Julia Stone were predictably stoned on the couch. Got a call from Meg and Jess, figured I was bored, briefly visited Ringer's again and met some bloke called Brad who had his eye on Meg ("dude, you're cool... you got to go to school with these chicks? woah... dude, you're cool..." repeat ad nauseum). I extricated myself soon after, went home, slept in, and did even more study. Guess who's sick of Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. Found a cover of Portishead's Glory Box by Powderfinger. Actually kinda cool.

Then Monday, watched Snatch, headed down to school, caught up with some kids, then once more into the breach. Couple of questions were a little iffy but I think I recovered alright. Everyone was just happy to get it all done, cept Ruby and Belle since they've got one more. Headed down the street with Oliver, then cleaned up the shed and sorted out the yard as people started arriving.

Diverse crowd, but it was fun until after midnight. I think they had a good night. Since we were double booked, Fraser and a horde of year nines in suits and makeup briefly dropped in, stood around awkwardly looking at us drunken year twelves lounging around the fire, then most of them left. Fraser's closer friends, who I figure are probably sane, stuck around for a while. Still very amusing.

Had a thrilling game of boxhead, then things started winding down, and there was whinging and depression and puking and whatever. Shouldn't be so meh, I suppose, but screw it. Eventually, it ended up with Pat and I yelling about music and singing along to Muse songs while Denny, Jess, Sam and Dayne played the n64. Jess pwned at marioparty, very amusing. Then Pat and Sam went for a maccas run and we watched The Mummy. Managed to sit through all of it too.

This morning, staggered awake, made sure the kids who stayed over were alive and got to whereever they needed to be, then cleaned up the yard (surprisingly little mess, just a crapton of bottles), and headed down the street for supplies.

Had a driving lesson when I recovered, I really really need to get my Ps, then checked out some suits for the valedictory (more than almost any time, I am reminded why being a stick figure sucks). Kinda accidently bought another season of 30 Rock, and hit Video Ezy like a freight train.

The Fountain - **1/2
Trippy visuals, but it makes no sense on first viewing and really seems to go nowhere. I think there's a five minute sequence towards the end that would work as a Tool video. Reminded me of Requiem for a Dream messed up with Splice. Still interested in seeing Black Swan and whatever Aronofsky salvages out of Wolverine. Interesting director, I'll give him that.

Btw, the stupid on facebook is goddamn toxic, you should be ashamed of yourselves.

Now, dear readers, what do I do. There's a few things that need to be done, but not much to write about. I don't want to put the blog on hiatus, but neither do I want to write every day about nothing. Hurm. See what happens.

This week has the new Harry Potter film come out (for some reason we're going as breakfast???) and the valedictory, then Brad's on Saturday. Got a lot of stuff to sort out. Hurm.

Oh well.

Crossposted.

Catchyas.

Caged and Frozen Still.

2010-11-11T04:41:00.000-08:00

'Lo all.

It's been a while, I suppose.

I'm sick, I've got a cold, it sucks. Unfortunately, this saps motivation to study. Not good.

In the last week I've watched too many movies, and gotten myself properly addicted to 30 Rock. Which is also not good in an exam situation.

Anyway. Spent most of the week recovering and idling, went over some practice exams, usual drill. And thanks Threadless for the cheap hoodies, liking the White Stripes one.

Se7en - ****
A little predictable towards the end. A fun ride, very gorey, nice soundtrack, Morgan Freeman. Can definitely see the development Fincher had between this and Fight Club.

I should really go see the Social Network, shouldn't I.

The Men Who Stare at Goats - ***1/2
This is a very silly film. But hey, it's my kind of silly. Only problem is it seems to double back on itself and it kind of goes nowhere. But I can't argue with the main premise, which is all the crazy government conspiracies about weird crap in the military. Surprisingly awesome film.

I probably watched some other films, I don't really remember. Days are starting to blend in on each other again, not good. Need to snap out of it.

Today was hell. Woke up late, went over some historian quotes (useless, in the end), go to ride to school, and the bike has a goddamn flat tyre. I suppose it's the first one in almost six months, but still! Walk to school, meet up with the history kids, start bouncing off walls.

First question was about WW1. Soooo gooooood. I reckon I smashed it, except I kind of barely mentioned historiography in the essay. Still. Expecting higher than 40 for history. Well. Hoping.

After that, chatted to Emily, Isobelle and Annie about hot actresses, grabbed a crapton of maccas, then got a lift home to get work stuff. Rush back down the street, I'm told I'm not needed til sevenish. Goddamn.

So I spent an hour catching up with Meg and Jess and Jess'ss airconditioned house. They were watching Mean Girls. So much more respect for that movie now that I know Tina Fey wrote it, and The Janitor's in it.

Then back to work. And we got hit fairly hard, it was a RAAF function. Still, kept on top of it, Sammy helped out too, it was awesome. Wish I had more of that chicken though.

Walk home, everyone else is at the cinema, and planning on heading out. I got no booze, and no ride out to Longford, and I'm hitting the pub tomorrow night anyway, I think. Stayed home and watched a doco about Powderfinger, which wasn't bad.

Tomorrow is my day off before hardcore media revision. I will spend it watching 30 Rock. No regrets.

Crossposted.

Catchyas.

I Drink Your Milkshake.

2010-11-06T04:07:00.000-07:00

'Lo all.

As usual, I'm very tired.

So, yesterday, got up late, decided to avoid study until Monday, and did next to nothing all day. And it was glorious.

Headed down to Jack's to catch the live band with Denny and Emily, then everyone else turned up. Denny's hair had been straightened, he looked like an emo Beatle. Annie and Emily spectacularly lost a game of pool after just one shot (that takes skill).

Since that was dull, headed across the road to the Star and chilled on the couches with JAGERBOMBS. Had a game of pool with Pat's rules while some other people put Miley Cyrus on the jukebox. Bastards.

Kas next. Pretty dead. Floor was too sticky. So, again, chilled on couches, said hi to Goody and Lester, then we got bored again. Denny, Sam and I went to Legends to say hi to Jason while the girls went to Ringer's. Sam won ten bucks from a pokie machine. Visited maccas on our way to back. We had an indepth discussion about something, I can't remember. The crazy bitch on the door let me in this time. Strange.

Walk in, see Mewha, and we catch up. Spent half the night perched next to a barrel laughing at random crap and dancing with Alison to that damned Dynomite song. Got nicely tanked. Very amusing evening. Annie and Bernice were trashed at lights, so Sam and I walked them home, then crashed at like 4.

This morning, I woke up at like 7 still wasted, which is not a comfortable feeling. Finally woke up again at like 1230, Sam haunted the spare room til about 2, then got a lift down the street. Haven't really done much since.

There Will Be Blood - ****1/2
Woah. The pacing's a little off, sometimes it just seems to drag, but woah. The last scene. Creepy, creepy preachers. Excellent film.

Tomorrow, work. Joy.

Crossposted.

Catchyas.

Good Night, and Good Luck.

2010-11-04T04:31:00.000-07:00

'Lo all.

Oh, what's that literature? You wanted the crap kicked out of you? Well, I guess I'm not doing anything else at the moment...

It's done. And done so hard. Man. Passages were a lot easier than I was expecting. Went in chilled, agonised over Keats, but then wiped the floor with Hedda. Feels good man. Went out smiling, chatted briefly to Dosser, who figured it was a "fair" exam, then down the street for chips and deconstruction with Ryan and Emily. Best chips ever.

Hit Jack's with Emily after for a game of pool or three, since she had such a great time just chilling in there with Denny earlier in the week. She tried Guiness, and enjoyed it.

Good Night, and Good Luck - *****
Woah. Understated but awesome film. It just builds tension so well, even though you know what's going to happen. Tony Stark and wife plot seemed a bit tacked on, but still. The ending seemed genuinely powerful, and hell, I agreed with what he was saying. One for the Mad Men fans, this is right up your alley.

And now here I am. I have nothing to do for a week, other than revise for history. Gonna try Ringer's again tomorrow night. Meh.

Crossposted.

peace.

1000 Fold.

2010-11-03T03:30:00.000-07:00

'Lo everyone.

I wish I had more interesting things to write about, but I don't.

I wrote a lot of essays over the last few days. It's not fun having to churn them out.

Maths exam Monday and today. Had to take a couple of guesses, but it all turned out alright. Confident.

Can't say the same for lit, but I'm going to go in and do my best, etc, etc.

Anyway. Time to rock n roll tomorrow. Then pub to celebrate. And chips. Best chips I'll have ever had.

Crossposted.

Catchyas.

It's Evolution, Baby.

2010-10-29T08:09:00.000-07:00

'Lo all.

Posting after two beers. Sue me.

It's been a week. I've actually been forcing myself not to post. I figure that if I did write anything, it'd be ultimately pretty pointless and mind-numbingly dull. But I think I need the catharsis, or maybe I'm just so stuck in the routine. I don't know. It's been a crazy week.

I don't remember a lot, so here's a highlights reel.

Sunday I went to work, it's only Sammy and Jordz now, poor bastards. Still, now I have a regular Sunday shift, which is good.

It Might Get Loud - ****
Much like watching Dave Grohl playing with JP Jones and Jimmy Page, it was so cool to see Jack White meeting his hero and playing along with him. Dunno about The Edge, it seemed that his bit was always "I push a lot of buttons and play simple riffs". They needed more time on Jimmy, especially at Headley Grange. The Levee Breaks bit was insane, and the last jam, over In My Time of Dying, was incredible. Worth watching, if you're a fan.

Um.

Tried a MegaMac, just cos I was bored. It's not that great.

Went to school on Tuesday. Saw Dosser, she helped me a bit, and Mr Brennan. It was bizarre. I feel like I don't fit in anymore.

Been doing plenty of study too. Lots of bio practice exams.

Today, went to school early, spent an hour in the shade going over revision cards, then everyone started arriving and we went in. Jesus. It was all too quick. Smashed the short answer, then the multiple choice. I found myself finished just after 50m. So, I had about half an hour to go back and check every damn question, then get bored out of my skull.

Afterwards, headed to the show with Jess and Jordan, they went on one crappy ride, then back to the chicken shop. It was good, so relaxing. I will miss this shop, and intend on visiting it a lot in the few months I have left. We went back to the show, met with Kelly and Denny, then Sam, Jane and Eliza, hit the Cha Cha (still fun, after all these years), some crazy boat ride (with STROBES EVERYWHERE, but it was too slow). Made Eliza go on the giant drop, then fireworks, and then the big import for this year, this arm that rotated little arms with people on them. It was good fun, since it felt like you were barely strapped in, and you were ten metres high rolling around. Good views of everything. I did it twice.

After that, pretty dull. Jess, Jordan and I joined a big group of teenagers all heading in the same direction, apparently because there was a fight or something further up, but it ended up being just a big loop around the sideshows, pretty funny. Jordan got some fairy floss, met Sam again, and we fed it to her. Got a lift home with Sam, and noticed that Giant Arm Spin ride was broken, stranding two dozen people up in the air upside down. We lol'd.

Head home, head down the street, meet up with everyone at Kasbah, but it's dead, so we decide to go to Ringer's. Stupid bouncer lady wouldn't let me in, even though she's done it before. What gives. Do I really look that young? That's soul-crushing stuff.

So, miserably headed to maccas, but everyone else caught up, met Jess, Jake got drivethru, then walked back to Kas as it had more life. Jenny and Emily tore up the dancefloor, Annie and I chatted, and I saw G Brewer. Awesome, I suppose. When they headed out to Ringer's I went home. Screw it.

Anyway. Pretty depressing, to be honest, but better to be kind of down and not get into a crappy nightclub than fail an exam and get stuck upside down, I suppose. Gotta stay positive.

Tomorrow is essay writing time. If I can get two done, I'll be happy. I'll post again more often, it's probably healthier.

Crossposted.

Anyway, the end.

That's It.

2010-10-22T02:45:00.000-07:00

'Lo all.

My face is finished, my body's gone, and I can't help that standing up here in front of all this applause, and gazin down at all the young and the beautiful with their questioning eyes, that above all things OMG WE'RE DONE.

Woah.

But seriously, (thankyou Mr Cave), I am dead tired, so I might be a little brief. But we have so much to cover.

Yesterday. Dragged myself awake, as usual. Didn't feel any different til I finished my coffee. Get to school, lot of shouting. Kids are pumped already.

First class was lit, and we finished the last poem. Feels good man.

Then our last ever maths class. Mr Brennan gave us some sage advice about the exam, and then we got a photo of the class. Damn camera decided to crap out on me for the first time today.

Then our last ever recess, printed out some concept posters, then enjoyed the sunlight and kicking a soccerball around.

Last ever lit class, we got cake, a photo with Dosser, and then terrified her when we tried to play lit celebrity heads, and failed miserably. Well, at least we know we have to study, especially so we know at least the name of every ode we studied, right Isobelle?

Off to bio, got chocolate, went through more practice exam. I'm confident for bio.

At lunch, we got free pasta, then rushed off to the basketball courts for our very last game of soccer ever. And it was so much fun. We had Gavin kicks, girls who stood in the middle getting hit, vuvuzelas everywhere. It was so damn hot, so we were exhausted by the end, but goddamn. I'll miss this the most, I think.

History next, and we went over another exam. Mr Ries then told us we were awesome, and we all hugged him and Asad the token year eleven. He is a great teacher, and Pat and I are pumped to have him on our table for valedictory.

Then our last class ever (!), media, watched some of the finished films. Geordie's claymation is excellent, and Ruby's has an awesome soundtrack. We had to run then, get back onto the quad.

It was pandemonium. Emily grabbed me, we swapped uniforms in the crowded girl's toilets, then ran back out for the big circle and countdown. I burnt out my airhorn, totally worth it. You don't even hear the bell, you're screaming that much. Found a vuvuzela in the ensuing mosh, had so much fun. Eventually got on Tom's shoulders and the party kept going in the year twelve area. Ecstatic, cept I cut my lip on the damn cheap plastic vuvuzela, but still!

Rushed home with my almost overflowing bag, then off to work. Finished the first half of my run in about half an hour, then the girls let me go, saying they'd to the other half. Awesome. Went home, showered, gathered my supplies, then the Beardman and I dropped off more junk for Pat's Trash Fort. Headed to maccas once Ms Henry shut down Aiden's balloon inflation operation (they managed around 700 balloons in an hour, they reckon), then joined the crowd for the party buses.

All the way to Ameilia's, we sung. Very loudly. Even if we didn't know the words. Might have pissed everyone off, but it was fun. Got there, nice place, put up the tent with Isaac and Hayden, then got into it. Three large bottles of bourbon and coke later, things are a little confusing. Full moon, good omen. Scotty D and Andrew were DJing, and they did a fine job except for repeating the same half dozen songs all night. Gavin and Tabby, it's about time. Not sure what Isaac was doing in my tent for much of the night. Patrick got extremely wasted, and when we tried to help him, first he started breakdancing on his back on rocks, then he tried to jump a fire barrel and hurt his ankle. We told him to sit out, and he tried his hardest to get back into the mosh. I remember dancing with Aiden and Isobelle to Daft Punk, which was awesome. Chatted to Ameilia about going to Laneway next year, as the lineup is that good. It was amusing to see who picked up whom. And Millsy and his glowsticks. What a hero.

Anyway, it hit about 1am, and kids realised they were going dry. I know I was at that stage. So kids started going home, and I was not intoxicated enough to want to stick around, grabbed a lift with Dayne in his massive 4WD through the fog. Wiffy and Tori begged me to let them use the tent, so I left it with them for the night. Got home about 130.

Oh god. Forcing myself up at 630 was painful. Quick shower, found out what everyone else was up to, then started walking down to Pat's, Aiden gave me a lift. Got all the shenanigans stuff out, chucked it next to my locker, and raided the year nine centre with silly string, chalk and little green army men. While that was occuring, Mr Brennan's bike was hoisted up the flagpole, and Cumpster, Julian, Dayne and I gladwrapped the quad and graffitied with the chalk. We got free breakfast, chicken and bacon burgers cooked by the teachers, that was cool. About 830, the rest of the school was eyeing the Trash Fort with unease, and we had to head off to the hall for the chapel service.

They played Bon Jovi. Dude. Seriously. We roared the first hymn, we cried when the younger kids cried about their siblings and said how much they'd all miss Tahlia Deschepper (??), then we messed up the words to the second hymn. Classy as hell.

We had nothing to do after that, so we drifted around to the trash fort and sat in the sun wondering what to do until recess. We got free food in the staff room, and all the homeroom teachers said their last goodbyes, Mrs Ripon nearly cried, but we gave her a big hamper of coffee, and a card with David Lee Roth from Isobelle. We lol'd.

After grabbing some tubs off Beardman, headed to the hall for rehearsal for the assembly. It was hot and dull and everyone just wanted to get out. Plus the sound system seemed to be sucking arse, that was a little amusing.

So then suddenly, it was lunchtime. Dayno, Tom and I sorted out all the supplies, then changed into my Jesus outfit and loaded the supersoaker. We had a ball. Slidey thing, giant wadey pool, and waterbombs dropping everywhere. At one stage, someone (Walshy?) grabbed a bean bag from the fort and popped it, spilling thousands of bean bag beans into the pool, which then stuck to everyone. Awesome. We dropped the ping pong balls as Tom pushed Louise around in the little plastic car, which then caused a storm of little kids to run in and steal them all. Shot a lot of people in the head. Saw some suspicious looking year nines hanging around our lockers when I went to put my camera away.

Anyway. Then it was time to clean up, so we did. Went to get changed, boy's toilets is covered in spraypaint, teachers were coming in pissed. Wasn't us, we were too busy making a mess of each other on the quad.

Then the assembly. We got mortarboard hats which looked ridiculous, and it was all good up to the point where What Is Love stopped and we were all on stage. The mics during the Diama's performance kept screwing up, the rap was too quiet, and the mics did not fix themselves for Amanda and Bree's song. We danced ridiculously, then Oliver and Jenny sung a Lionel Richie song (pretty funny). A quick slideshow that ended very abruptly, then we all screamed Always and practically ran out of the hall with our balloons. Not the best final assembly. At all. A little bit of a disaster.

Anyway, we quickly distanced ourselves and released our balloons, then packed up and hugged and such. Put all my stuff in the Beardmobile, then walked down the street with Sarah and Cameron dissecting the day. Got chips with Denny, Kelly, Ryan and Julian, chatted more, then got a lift home with Julian. I've been checking the news since then, staving off sleep.

So yeah. That's my secondary schooling 90% done, just got exams over the next month to look forward to. First up is biology, but that's next week. Unless something cool happens between then and now, I'm taking a break, going to study and sleep. Mainly sleep.

Crossposted.

peace and love to all of the Class of 2010.

Last Days.

2010-10-20T03:31:00.000-07:00

'Lo all.

Man, it's getting scary now.

Go to school, give the helicopter to Aiden, who was impressed, then first up was media. Smashed a couple of questions. Media was good, I'll miss it.

Then our very last spare. Sarah and Potter didn't believe me when I said I didn't want children. But then, world's probably going to end when Palin and the Tea Party get elected, who cares.

Not much going on at recess, then maths. Gotta get pumped about this exam.

Then lit, still going through the last poem.

Got changed into my Jesus outfit, met Batman, a pair of storm troopers, Anakin Skywalker (with an Iron Man mask), and a Tisdall kid with a Blundell cape, and jumped on the bus with Ms Dyke's fixed smile. We got to the park and announced that us idiots were representing Grammar. Run itself was alright, Tom was right behind me the whole damn time. Bastard didn't even have to run, he wasn't in the team, he just wanted something to do at lunchtime, I guess. Anyway, we crossed the line at the same time, then Jake, Sam, and Aiden. Pat's team came in next, and they kicked our arse. The holes that Hayden had cut into his suit were threatening to sever his nipples. Good run, got free food, then back on the bus. I decided to continue wearing the beard.

Sorting out more than a hundred kids to all sing a song and dance is difficult. Especially when most of us would just start singing randomly anyway. Sat out for the dance until the end, then decided to screw it and join in anyway. Pat's rap needs polishing, but it's damn funny.

After school, more stuff. Denny and I had to pick up liquor, then saw the rest buying nerf guns and silly string. Had chips, Isaac shot passerbys when he worked out his silly string can worked (he accidently shot Denny in the face first). Then headed back to the park with Aiden and heard the results for Lap the Lakes, we came third and got best dressed, but they stuffed it up, so maybe we came fourth. Either way, we got two mugs each.

Back home, haven't done a lot. Got BDO tickets for Alice and Tess, and watched the IT Crowd. Taking a brief break from study, I'll be diving back into it on Sunday afternoon.

Tomorrow, last full day of school ever. Oh boy. Then things get good. No post until possibly Saturday night, I'll be sure to take photos though.

Crossposted.

Catchyas.

Rollin and Scratchin.

2010-10-19T03:47:00.000-07:00

'Lo everyone.

Last Tuesday. Yew.

It's starting to get irritating. I'm waking up early and dragging myself into the cold just for more practice exams. I know I should be grasping these opportunities, but I'm just forcing myself to it. I'm looking forward to the flexibility in study next week.

Anyway. Get to school, history first up, another timeline. Gotta know the historiography though, argh.

Then media. Watched a making of thing for Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. Meh.

Recess was slow. Off to maths, went over more practice exam. Oh well. When Brennos free I'll ask how to work my calculator.

Bio next, such fun. We had a free lunch at Clap Daddy's Palace after that. Julian and Oliver stole a lot of cans of coke. Nice place. We got little membership cards, as we're the new Old Scholars, as Millsy pointed out. Joy. Looking forward to the reunion in ten years.

Lit next. Ms Dosser was in a good mood. Enjoyable lesson smashing the fifteenth and last poem. Even if we only got two lines in.

In spare, crashed next to Sarah as Leighton dropped in, swapped a few stories, then Gavin managed to cram his newspaper into a pencil case. Spectacular.

After school, went down the street. Bought more ping pong balls, and Aiden got a little helicopter. I've been... modifying it this evening. Also had what are probably the last after-school chips with Denny ever. A little sad, since there was no gravy.

Repo Men - ****
Except for the laggy middle bit, OH GOD HOLY AWESOME. It's like a Guy Richie film crossed with Daybreakers. The opening was excellent, I liked all the subtle bits, and the ending was literally mindblowing. The hallway fight scene with the hammer reminded me of Oldboy, made me smile. Go see it, good film.

Tomorrow, last Wednesday. Going to beat Pat with the rest of Team Mongoose in Lap the Lakes in my Jesus outfit, then a preview of the Badass Bards' new rap. Should be fun.

Crossposted.

Catchyas.

This Is A Weeping Song.

2010-10-18T04:52:00.000-07:00

'Lo all.

Damn. Last Monday of high school ever.

Anyway. I've just spent about an hour now with this window open, and about thirty tabs with youtube going. I just lost all that time. Still. Live Beth Gibbons (!), Desert Sessions, Nick Cave (drug-addled), Smashing Pumpkins... I guess it's a little worth it.

So today was pretty slow, a little depressing, but goddamn. Last Monday. Had to keep it in mind.

First up on this most glorious of days was bio. Started out promising, then we had a surprise practice exam, and they didn't tell me when reading was over. Meh. Trudged through it.

Then maths. Finished going over the last practice exam. It's getting a little repetitive. I must have been tired, there were two questions that were so ridiculously easy I just skipped over them. Stupid mistakes, stupid mistakes...

Not much going on at recess, as usual. Went to double history, sat down and smashed the bastard. Still not enough historiography, but we'll see how it goes.

At lunch we kicked a stress ball around after taking a photo of some horses. Not The Horse (hallowed be thy name), but some white horses in a paddock near the clothing store. We'll catch The Horse though.

Off to media, got another practice exam back (SICK OF THEM!), did alright. Apparently I got the prize for media this year, which is weird since Emma beat me in all the SACs and stuff. Hurm.

Had a look at the photography competition ("I TOOK OUT ALL THE COLOURS EXCEPT THIS BIT HERE TO MAKE IT DEEP AND MEANINGFUL I AM A PHOTOGRAPHER LOL"), then off to spare. Girls were whinging so I slept.

After school, went down the street with Denny, we bought 15 vuvuzelas and a buttload of other stuff, then hit maccas before grabbing a Jesus costume for me. Massive beard, and a robe for a five year old that goes to my knees. Should be fun. Checked out all my kit back home, nerf gun, super soaker, vuvuzela, airhorn, chalk, screamer balloons, bubble sword, silly string gun. Muckup day's going to be fun. Just gotta find some more ping pong balls, then get the giant poster of Hayden printed.

Tomorrow is the last Tuesday ever (getting a little repetitive). Not going to be fun, I haven't finished a lit essay yet.

Crossposted.

Catchyas.

Last Spring Concert ever.

2010-10-16T04:05:00.000-07:00

'Lo all.

Right. Yesterday was raining all the damn time. Like, I woke up, it was raining, get to school, still raining, rained all day, rained when the bell went, rained at the concert, and only stopped when we got out. Not cool.

Also, this was our last Friday of school ever. Weird.

Anyway. Lift to school, bio first up, did the second half of the practice exam. Had to mark it, wasn't too bad, I guess. Going to do a million soon though, which I'm definitely looking forward to.

Then history, smashed a French timeline. Still not properly confident yet, but I need historiography more than anything else.

Had to run to media at recess, practice exam. Decided to test some different ideas out, wrote about juggalo culture because it's in the news. Meh. Wonder what the mark will be.

Not much going on at lunchtime, and since it was freezing cold and still pouring, went upstairs with Denny and Ryan. The girls were practicing the dance. Good entertainment.

Then a spare. Sarah got sick of Camp Rock, so played MY damn solitaire while everyone whinged about psychology and cats.

Finally maths. Got our marks back. I passed. Better than the last one. Just lost marks on stupid little mistakes which I'll work on before the real deal.

After school, headed down the second hand joint with Denny, tested out a buttload of cheap tiny nerf guns and found ONE that worked. Got a lift back, then cleaned out the shed. Hurm.

Off to the spring concert, room 40 smelt like bacon cooked in piss (the girls tell me it smelt like something else, something much worse), so we chilled outside in the rain. Smashed the performance. Last one ever. Woo. Then got a fancy certificate and fancy pen, and Jake, Aiden and Pat (or, the Badass Bards, as they prefer to be known) rapped about Ivo and Mr C. Very amusing.

After that, back to my place, kids trickled in, once everyone arrived we cleared the coffee table and tried to explain the rules for Boxhead. And we got very drunk. Polished off a bottle of mead and a half between us. By about 2, Isobelle had crashed, Beardman was giving Ryan and Aiden his moonshine, Claire, Annie and I were wasted on the couch, Dayne was kicking arse at Smash Bros, and Pat rolling around apologising, while hitting on Fraser, who had stayed up for the hilarity. We sung (a lot), we cried, we stayed up late. Fun night. Got a couple of calls from Bernice as well, who was on the fence with Megan and Emma at Tame Impala. Very lucky.

Then this morning, Claire and Isobelle had to go visit Ms Dosser, so we all got up early. Watched a lot of rage while we waited for the parentals.

Didn't do much after that. Watched Children of Men, which I have missed, went over some historiography for history, and put off doing a lit exam. I'll do it tomorrow.

Right now my sisters are arguing over Jurassic Park. I don't think they understand the third film yet. Suddenly everything is a mutant! Still a crap film :(

Tomorrow, lit practice, sleep. Meh.

Crossposted.

Catchyas.

Thursday.

2010-10-14T04:46:00.000-07:00

'Lo all.

Hell.

I suppose today wasn't too bad, all up. Got to school and saw Caroline, who said she was disappointed in me for quitting band. Hurm. Then a surprise meeting about muckup day, and we all voted for Always because apparently Tribute is inappropriate. Slept through chapel, and Pat had to apologise for rapping. It's all bull. "If you want to do something different, ask the chaplain first, (so he can say no)".

Anyway, bio, practice exams. So sick of them already. Squished the multiple choice.

After recess was double spare, and it was our last one ever, so we had a party, with fairy floss and little cans of coke and clinkers and musical chairs and limbo. We had a look at the slideshows for muckup day, and thankfully I'm barely in them. It was good fun, even though we were missing Gavin and Georgia. They were with us in spirit.

At lunch, not a lot happened. Sat around the table getting pumped about Ameilia's next week.

History was slow, Pat decided to speak gibberish for a lesson. I should really get around to finishing a practice exam or something. Meeh. Not enough motivation yet. Not in classtime, when I know I can't get it finished.

Off to lit, where Dosser told us about how to structure things. It's a shame a lot of it is vague, unlike history. We get told to evoke the text and stuff, and I just don't know I'll be able to do it well enough. Hurm.

Go home, go back down the street for work. Bossman says he might be able to find some work for me in January, which is good. Not so good, one of my regulars died. The husband just looked so crushed. Then I nearly got hit by a (hopefully unrelated) hearse. Bit of a shock. Go to Ken's since I was in the neighbourhood, catch up with Josh, who'd just popped his concert cherry by seeing Paramore (...). Ken had a black box. Wish I had more money.

Home, cleaned out shed a bit, chainsawed up some wood (a little unnecessary, but still), and then a Dylan Moran live show was on tv. Pat is a comedic genius, he's using the Old Spice ad to sell his textbooks. I've already sold one of mine, which is good, I suppose.

Tomorrow will be our last Friday of school ever. Media practice exam, then spring concert, then some kids might come around. Should be fun. Probably won't be a post.

Crossposted.

Catchyas.

I Fought Pirahnas.

2010-10-13T03:30:00.000-07:00

'Lo all.

Today was cold and wet and it just didn't stop. What the balls.

This morning, wore a suit to school, explained to everyone that it was International Suit Up Day, then Pat, Sam and Aiden arrived. Yes, we looked a little ridiculous, but it was damn classy. Ms Henry was not amused and told us to get changed. Oh well. A little bit of fun.

First up was bio, got 39/40 on my last SAC because we were allowed to take the answers in, and I still haven't gotten my practice exam back. Hurm.

Then media. Went over more social values stuff. I'm not looking forward to this exam, it just seems so vague.

Recess was meh.

In history, got a buttload of practice exams to do during SWOT Vac. Joy.

Then lit. No Ms Dosser, so I chilled with the spare kids.

At lunch, the new house captains got announced, looks like Binks will go alright in Adam's capable hands. Didn't do much after that, shipped off to maths as it started raining and a jet went past.

Smashed the maths practice exam, where I got stuck and ran out of time on the two last questions. Oh well. I know where to improve now.

After school, watched Slumdog Millionaire and ate half of Geordie's cake. It dragged on and on and on though.

Haven't done much since I got home. Don't really plan to change that. This new Daft Punk stuff I've found is insane.

Tomorrow's our last chapel ever, thank gawd.

Crossposted.

Catchyas.

Ten Thousand.

2010-10-12T03:40:00.000-07:00

'Lo readers.

Last night I could barely sleep. Had this weird dream. I swear it was lucid or something. Suffocating like sleep paralysis but I wasn't awake, because I woke up. It was bizarre. Couldn't sleep after that.

So today sucked. Had to sit up the front in our last assembly, had to go on stage to pick up a Distinction in Cross Country (and yet nothing for music?). Lot of kids got certificates. A guy from the RAAF talked for ages about the importance of education then gave Kyna a laptop. He said that when he's in front of a large crowd he tends to go on and on. We were not surprised when he then did so.

Then a spare. Slept. Seriously.

Off to media, went over some social values stuff. I should be doing more questions.

Not much went on at recess, as usual.

Then double maths, had a practice exam. Smashed it. A lot easier than the formal one we did the other week.

Lunch. Not much to do, so Pat and I went up to watch the lacrosse grand final that Sam was playing in. Pretty funny watching them all skid around in their socks. Then Meg and Jess arrived shooting silly string. Decided to evacuate pretty quickly, then Hayden and Pat found a box full of discuses. So, naturally, they had a rolling competition. The little kids who were there for athletics were not amused.

Double lit. Got results back about our last SAC. I passed, so I'm happy. Spent a lesson going over Lauren's SAC (it was her birthday too, Happy Birthday!), then some Hedda readings. Still not confident, but I guess we can only improve.

After school, went down the street with Ryan, Denny and Sam, had some chips with Geordie and Emily, and started buying more supplies for muckup day. Got about 50 ping pong balls, a Nerf Maverick, some chalk, and streamers. Denny picked up some spinning top thing that was littered with glorious Engrish. On the back, it stated how the toy was good for "harmonising the two hands" and being good for "child brains". "BURN THE WIND!"

Went home, I've just been shooting this damn Nerf gun. I'm going to have some fun on muckup day with it, but I need more darts. Hurm. Also, my iPod's being a whiny little bitch and refusing to hook up with my computer. What gives? Haven't I given you everything? I just want to chuck on another gig...

Tomorrow is going to suck.

Crossposted.

Anyway, the end.

Recoiled.

2010-10-11T04:16:00.000-07:00

'Lo readers.

Mmmmrrrrrrrr. More tired today than I was yesterday, and I went to bed early, what gives.

Woke up late, off to school, gave Meg a USB, got one off Annie full of photos to sort out.

First up was bio, everyone got their practice exams back except me, because it got lost. I am disappoint.

Lit next, finished St Agnes. Bit of a struggle but we got there in the end, and half the class had nicked off to the Junior School for one last time.

Fairly quiet at recess. My kingdom to be able to sleep instead.

In history we smashed a Russia timeline. Chatted to Steve about future plans, criminology definitely sounds interesting. Got some twisted question to write about, so Isobelle jumped me.

Then maths, did a bit more work. Still not feeling particularly motivated, but we've got a practice exam tomorrow and Wednesday.

At lunch, we gave Meg her iPod, then went upstairs to argue with everyone about muckup day. I told kids to help back me up, but there wasn't much going on. Some stuff got sorted, I am beginning to not care. I mean, in a couple of months, I'll never have to see these people again. We'll be singing Tribute either way, dammit.

Since Ms Taylor was away, had a spare, sorted out all the photos from Bernice, Pat, Annie and I. There's some good ones, some awful ones, and a lot of mine that got stolen. I probably should have said something. I'll swap them for the original big high quality versions. Not envying Bernice and Sarah Ryan's job with sorting out all the million photos they'll get for these slideshows. As long as some of mine get in. Had a second spare after that, Gavin flicked a lot of pens at Sarah. She wasn't happy with him, especially when she realised throwing more at him meant he'd flick more back.

After school was band, Mr C was stressed because we all suck. Next week is party though. Bernice found some cheap ping pong balls, which I'll buy tomorrow. Then Ryan rocked up at home, and gave me his belated birthday present that about a dozen other kids chipped in for, which was a GIANT beer stein. Very, very cool, looking forward to giving it a proper go on Friday night.

Haven't done much since, went over a few media questions, sung Bohemian Rhapsody on facebook, and saw a couple of awesome youtube clips (look up Banksy Simpsons and Grover Old Spice).

Tomorrow is going to suck, it's doubles day.

Crossposted.

Catchyas.

updates at 10.

The Move Again.

Flying Lotus.

One Armed Scissor.

2011 Wrap-up.

Movie Edition 2011.

Arming Eritrea.

Airbag.

Meredith Music Festival.

Adventure Time.

The Flaming Lips.

Harvest/Gathering/IndieSoundwave.

Subzero Fun.

Get Found.

Salefest again.

To Hell With Good Intentions.

Parklife + I Am the Resurrection.

All I Need.

You're A Woman I'm A Machine.

Child Bearing Hips.

Just Ace.

Fifth Time Lucky.

First Week Back.

For No One.

Dylan Moran, man.

Humming.

Radiodread.

Thursday.

Nineteen.

Deadening.

Pinball Wizard.

The Lonesome Crowded West.

Blitz.

Green Calx.

Hayden and Nemo's.

Children Collide and other Easter Adventures.

Frontier Psychiatrist.

Do The Astral Plane.

Cloud Control and other adventures.

Room on Fire.

Narc.

Anyone's Ghost.

First Week pt 3: Electric Boogaloo.

First Week pt 2.

First Week, part 1.

"O Week".

How To Handle A Rope.

St Kilda Festival.

The Move.

Fever Dreaming.

Big Day Out 2011.

Fear and Loathing in the Centre of the City at Night.

Baptism.

Shellshocked.

Black Bugs.

Odessa.

Third Man.

High Five, Swan Dive, Nose Dive.

Falls.

2010 Wrap-up.

Movie Edition 2010.

Out of Sight.

And The Earth Shook.

In the Loop.

Derezzed.

Valedictory, etc.

*vaguely media related title*

Caged and Frozen Still.

I Drink Your Milkshake.

Good Night, and Good Luck.

1000 Fold.

It's Evolution, Baby.

That's It.

Last Days.

Rollin and Scratchin.

This Is A Weeping Song.

Last Spring Concert ever.

Thursday.

I Fought Pirahnas.

Ten Thousand.

vaguely media related title