Oh You Easties

Ok .. so things have been a little quiet because I have been nursing a cold ... not the most auspicious starts to the working year I'm afraid ... and I truly hope this is not a sign of things to come ... just watched an inspiring doco on Philip Glass ... inspiring for its sometimes painful honesty and also inspiring because of Glass himself, who is quietly confident of his abilities, but seems such an unassuming and "normal" human being ... rest assured ... I will be tracking down a recording of his Symphony No 8 forthwith ... or as soon as time permits ... so I intend to take things on this year with measured assurance ... confident in my own capabilities and with a willingness to learn and also put into practice what I have learnt ... and I'm craving conversation about the mysteries of life .. I want to let those mysteries pull me further in towards clarity ... I want to be like Glass ... a listener of music ... the music has already been written .. its out there waiting to be heard ...

Glass by Leibowitz

Its strange that I am hoping for complete bombast in the world of rock for 2009 but have started the year gravitating towards ambient electronic music and what I have classified as Contemporary Classical (or at least added as a category on my itunes) ... I've started to listen to a bit more Part and thanks in part to Boomkat's Top 100 for 2008, I have enhanced my music experience with the likes of Max Richter, Peter Broderick and the like ... mostly piano and string based composers with a little electronics and sampling thrown in ... ethereal you could call it ... like listening to the Cocteau twins and their derivatives ... something from the 4AD label ... if that helps ...

I came across Max Richter to begin with (thanks mainly to MN).

Max Richter

His Blue Notebooks cd was a revelation of how seemingly simple pianistic riffs, when combined with subtle electronics, can be so emotionally effective ... it spurred me on to do more improvisatory playing when faced with the old ivories sans printed music .. I intend to do a lot more once M has showed me a few basics on his Musicator program ... (watch this space!!).

Max Richter The Blue Notebooks

Hauschka (yet another german) was the next on the list that I ticked off ...

Hauschka and his prepared piano

The touch points here, moreso than richter, are Glass, Nyman, Steve Reich et al ... interesting acoustic textures with repetition as a driving force ... I started with Prepared Piano but his latest Ferndorf is currently on high rotation on the random playlist ... and has also made many of the top whatever lists for 2008:

Peter Broderick has also been an absolute find. Loving his stuff so much at the moment ... I don't want to listen to anything else.

Peter Broderick looking like a young Nick Cave

Broderick's music is more closely aligned to Part and Janaceck ... the electronics are there but blend in so
well you don't even notice ... ditto for the "found sounds" ... hypnotic!

Latest Broderick CD - Float

These will be travelling with me (via the iphone) as I'm off to WA tomorrow for 2 and a half days of client visits ... I've seen the itinerary and so I will not be seeing much of Perth ... but probably the inside of libraries and taxis or the rental car for the most part ... I've spent the better part of today trying to figure out how to get my suit into my little travel case without crushing it too much ... I will be arriving late-ish tomorrow night so I'm not sure whether the hotel can press it for me in time ... maybe I can do the old hang it in the shower and let the steam iron out the creases trick ... but I'm not hopeful ... its an old-ish SABA suit that I had altered just this week gone ... its my travelling suit in a manner of speaking ... (oh and I don't do suit bags!!)

Anyhoo ... I'm not one for these overnight business trips ... especially ones that take up the better part of my working week ... it puts me too far behind and I hate having to play catch up. Also I miss M's actual b'day which will be the second time in a row ... the last time being BDO. Thankfully the H's have kindly invited him to dinner ... we have a booking for the Station Hotel on Saturday so there will certainly be a post soon after ... Half of his present will probably arrive at work when I'm away ... which is really bugging me because he will now have to wait that much longer ...

As always, our weekends have already started to fill up for the rest of the summer ... and we will have to juggle invites and perhaps decide who to drop and who to honour ... I usually go for the first come first served basis .. but as in other areas of life, things aren't always as simple ... well making the decision in essence is simple ... the ramifications however can be nightmarish!!

Well I have rambled on for long enough ... wish me luck for this week ... hope I haven't forgotten anything .. will see you on the otherside of the week after a lovely few days with the westies ...!! And it looks like I'll be escaping the heat, oddly enough, WA is predicting mid-30s ... and there are a number of 40 degree days this week here in good ole Melb! You'll be smelling those forest fires by the end of it ... unfortunately!

Crimes of the Stomach

Ok ... so some enterprising criminals broke into Vue du Monde and feasted on oysters and fine wine ... criminals after my own heart!! Who knew there were other ways at getting an instant booking at one of Melbourne's finer restaurants ... criminals with good taste ... who would have thunk!!

Full story here - http://www.theage.com.au/national/burglars-get-taste-of-the-high-life-20090116-7j78.html

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Comments:

Temasek wrote:


Yes it is some fine deductive thinking!!
21 Jan
 
No name wrote:


My favourite bit was the quote: "Normal thieves don't go into a place and shuck oysters," a source said. "Normal people do not know how to shuck oysters, so it would indicate that it is someone in the food industry."

Oh I'm sorry: I didn't know that knowing how to shuck oysters means you must work in the food industry! Idiots.
17 Jan

An Alton moment!

Ok .. M had an Alton moment today ... he intimated that the chinese were first in Singers and then the indians ... hello!! Malays?? Indigeous population??

What kind of revisionist bullshit is this? I should quit this bitch here and now ... but I love him too much and so in my heart I forgive ... but woe betide anyone else who brings this mess up again!!!

Oh and what is an Alton moment?? well that is something between friends I'm afraid.

On trying to stop a leaky tap

Ok ... moral of this poem .. jeez guys ... get a plumber already!!!

(inspired by P fixing a door, M wanting to enter the Age short story compo and an actual leaky tap!! ... oh and don't copy ... this is all mine!!)

Oh to stop a leaky tap
A plumber could be good for that
But wiley hands that twist and pop
could hardly save a single drop

Oh to stop the drip drip drap
A piece of tape could see to that
We'll wind it round the thread to see
If dripping tap will let us be

Alas to stop this droolly trap
I dropped his spanner for a bat
and bashed its head in 40 goes
But ever faithful on it flows

And now to staunch a gushing gash
Which was our erstwhile leaky tap
as constant as that drip drip drap
its time we stop this dreary crap!

Drinking wine and making plans

Ok ... Sunday Arvos are for dinking wine and making plans ...

me, p and m at Rrose in North Melbourne, sipping Temperanillo and speaking of websites, resolutions, hobbies, babies, cook-ups, music appreciation, saxophone lessons, handwriting lessons!! (don't ask) ....

Twice a day at least

Ok ... so yet another thing that will cause me anxiety ... Mouthwash can lead to cancer!!

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,24896583-5001021,00.html

Seriously, everything I need to help bolster my self confidence now has health, well life threatening side effects!!

What I did on my hols 4

Ok ... so M is now responsible for yet another "worst days of my life" ... well no thats not fair ... but I just wanted to blame somebody ... the petulance has yet to wear off ... but peops ... AAARRRGGHHH!!!!

We spent 6 hours yesterday in stifling heat, hunched over in back breaking knee busting positions, breathing in motes of industrial waste and god knows what else, and gradually being covered by fine glass splinters ... which are still making me prickly all over .. like I've fallen into a garden of cactii naked!

And what exactly were we doing? ... Well putting in batts in the ceiling ... this better work!!! And I better feel the effects on the next hot day or come winter!

I never want to do this again!!! I think this will be my hell or purgartory when the time comes ... nix the purgatory ... I'm not catholic.

I did manage to get an arty shot ... couldn't help myself ...

What I did on my hols 3

Ok ... I'm being summoned ... we're off to do the batts in the ceiling

What I did on my hols

Ok ... so its Saturday morning and I'm halfway through my 2 weeks of hols! But let me set the scene over here ...

- there's a load of washing going
- I'm trying to "backup" a copy of Maz richter's 24 Postcards in Full Colour
- Tori amos (or Tor me anus ... as D so delicately puts it) has just come on the random playlist on my ipod
- M's performing morning ablutions
- iphone is charging
- i'm typing this shit

Are you getting the picture so far? Do I have to spell out Boredom for you in capital letters!!

Doing it for the Kids

Ok ... I'm not a complete twat where kids are concerned ... we do have them in our lives ... and I wouldn't go so far as to say that we love them as our own ... but we are stupidly silly-pleased that we are part of their lives ... except for my nephew who refuses to speak to me every time I call ... harrumph!!

(the other D)

(J)

(and until he grows up and knows better ... our best little buddy N)

What I did on my hols 2

Ok ... normally I have more comments to make about my days away ... but we went to the Weribee Zoo with our friends D & M and their son J ... and I must say the highlight was having Nando's at Werribee Plaza ...

Its not that its a crap zoo ... its just that there's not a lot to see ... and don't get sucked in by having to pau an extra $50 for the whole "safari" experience ... you get a free bus ride with admission ... and really the safari rover doesn't really get that much closer ...

At least there were meerkats ... they always make me smile!

The zoo is laid out in various stages to reflect the plains of Africa ... so you're mainly looking at safari animals .... with a few american cattle thrown in ...

Most of these are perrenial favourites of mine ... but the zoo is geared mainly towards kids ... so when the fauna is all tucked away in shadowy corners away from the hot noon day sun ... then there's really not much else to do ...

(ok ... I don't give a flying F about whether a Zebra is white with black stripes or black with white stripes .. so over this peops ... i'm not auditioning for a spot on sesame street ... so can we put a lid on it ... already!)

(werribee zoo is damous for its white rhino ... the white bit is apparently an aberration on wide ... sorry but I was zoning out on the talk on the ride ... but the tour guide cum bus driver was very good ... tacky jokes aside he was knowledgeable ... had a pleasant voice ... and was very patient with these kids who kept wanting to ask questions ... very brave I thought initially as I would have had a convulsive fit before I ever did something like that when I was their age ... but then it became a little a-NNOOYYY - ing!)

Actually ... one girl in particular kept putting her hand up ... and usually she just crapped on about some shit or other .. without really having a question at the end ... I of course was staring daggers at her parent from behind ... seriously ... control your kid ... and lets get a move on!! But then I felt sorry for her ... because when they got of the bus ... she was kinda trailing behind trying to get in on the action ... so obviously their coping mechanism is to completely ignore her ... which explains a lot!!!

Now i've got the sads!!! Damn it!

you never know what's comin for you

Ok ... so we just spent the better part of the afternoon watching an old man regress into a child in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button:

As with all short stories, and indeed the short story form, structure is the sword of damocles that hangs tenuously over the plot ... given the temporal nature of the story, we know what the inevitable end is and are in some ways already prepared for this as an audience from the minute we walk into the darkened theatre and the opening frames flicker onto the screen ...

What happens in between is the art of both screenwriter and director ...

Since Fight Club burst so frenetically onto our screens, I have always been prepared to give David Finch a soupcon of my time and intellectual energy ... until now.

This is technically an amazing and beautiful film ... make up artists and CGI experts deserve all the accolades in the book as the final look of the film was never intrusive or a distraction ... the acting is solid and New Orleans is a beautiful city ... or should I say was(?) ...

But, and I am sure you will hear this time and time again, the film is really too long!! And the arc, is not so much a cyclonic wave, but a gentle rise on an otherwise calm ocean ... yes we live and love and have moments of regret, passion, joy and hardship ... but these are universal truths and would be the same regardless of whether we age forwards naturally, or as this film seems to posit, age backwards freakishly.

And this is the problem I have with this story ... what exactly has turning the conventions of time achieved? How has it made me see anything in a different light?

I need my friend D to watch this and for us to sit down and discuss it over a glass of wine ... perhaps that would afford me some clarity ...

So if you have a spare 2 and a whole bit hours, have a look ... you may find it worth your time. But I think I would like to have my afternoon back ...

A First for 2009 and A First Evah!!

Ok ... so it was the very first gig of the year ... Santogold at Billboard's!!

Had no expectations ... but was a little trepidatious when we rocked up at Billboard's and saw that most people had a "look" ... and most weren't even born when I had sex for the 1st time ... and considering it was Billboard's much hilarity ensued in the car on the way over of the "lets get some terry towelling, glowsticks, dummies, chupa-chups etc ... you get the drift ... and ready ourselves for some heavy duty melbourne shuffling!!' ... Anyhoo she was da bomb ... her voice was strong and she had her 2 robot girls bustin some righteous old skool MC Hammer moves ... complete with gold crinoline .. but sadly no Hammer pants ... STOP! ... you know what time it is !!

(scuse the crappy mobile pics)

Santo (is it pronounced Santa as in clause ... or Sant-O?) came out in one of those op shop space suits which is just crazy for the sake of being crazy ... and her DJ played a short set before she came on ... and I was heard to remark a number of times "they weren't even born!!" ... I felt like a dirty ol bastard I tell u what!

As girlfriend ony has one album, there was a finite amount of material to pull from ... but the material is strong ... and had lots of opps for shout-outs and audience participation ... all in all it was a great gig .. 'Say Aha" which always sounds a little dinky on record was a whole lot of fun live ... and so was "unstoppable" .. the slower numbers dragged a little ... but the cover of Guns of Brixton was well selected and for me the most fun was "Shove It".

And what was the First Evah alluded to in the title of this post? .... NO ENCORE!!! First Evah!!!

HNY2009

Ok ... Happy New year peops!! May you turn your flights of fancy into fits of reality!!

PS - Picture this ... New Year's Eve ... 2 old farts asleep on a couch ... brilliant!