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Archive Category: Music
Floating
Friday, 15 November 2002
OK, got my float money, now only a few more minutes of work to try and not look like a slacker who just ran to the bank for twenty five minutes (the teller couldn’t believe that God had singled her out to a psychotic like myself who demanded astonishing amounts of small coins and notes). Tonight I think I am going to walk up to the Queen Vic. market and see if there’s some fish stall
still open and I will take it home and see if M will cook it up without demolishing the kitchen (which is something that detracts a little bit of enjoyment from even the most yummy dinner). Am still trying to figure out a solution for getting the weather on to [miaow] but no luck so far. Tonight I have sworn to hang out at home and practice my Sneeze songs because they’re heading down to Melbourne next weekend and there’s a couple of shows lined up….I wish I had a photographic memory for this kind of thing….
Frustration Nation
Tuesday, 19 November 2002
oh….I am v.frustrated….I have too much to do! It’s driving me nuts that I am at work with this kick-ass connection to the net and yet can’t tweak up this page and have too many other things I need to be doing to feel good about doing it at home. [clutches head] Tomorrow I have to go to a workshop at the Bureau of Meteorology on Snow Probability Forecasts [downcast]….argh. I have two free nights this week and one of them is going to be repairing Mung’s computer….which, at this stage, I would prefer to throw from my office window because: 1) then it would be gone forever 2) fresh air would get in I have to write two website reviews by Friday of Media Watch Youth and Girls Inc. - this is while I’m learning Sneeze songs, and…omigod…that right!! I’m in the
middle of doing my masters! have I had time to even look at anything now I’m apparently two weeks into ’summer’ semester? That would be a B I G F A T N O!!!!
http://www.girlsinc.org/gc/
Sleep
Saturday, 23 November 2002
s l e e p y….last night was fun (albeit in the usual haphazard way)…of course I’d practiced all the songs to the cd without thinking that the band had just come back from the european tour and had just begun to play all their songs in a [um] organic kind of way. So I stumbled through…I added a link to Simon’s (Sneeze drummers) brothers site because I remembered how much I liked the mp3s on it when I visited it last. It’s nice to find poetry that you like - mostly I don’t like what I find and feel like a bit of a boring culture-less idiot, but Adam’s stuff is full of lots of images…particularly of Sydney…. Today the weather is divine…I have proclaimed a limit on study guilt until Monday when I will study all day until I am up to date…that’s right! You heard it first here….am feeling a little seedy…need to find shower, cafe & paper…..in that order….. I wish I had a digital camera because then I would take a picture of my garden which is actually looking very pretty! Lots of flowers, tomato plants, flowers, capsicum plants, flowers, chillies (is that how you spell it….?) brain aches….
I Need Eight Hours
Tuesday, 18 February 2003
Oh the evilness of being left alone in the office! It’s practically an invitation to play with my webpage, tweak my BlogAmp and generally avoid taxing my brain. Got to work a bit late in the innocent belief that my boss had gone interstate. Thus you can imagine my response when he walked into the room at about 10am. I have turned minimising at lightspeed into an artform.
Am recovered from wedding, though miss my special hair. Last night had a bit of band practice and got a burnt copy of our new EP - it’s been mastered! Now, it is usual for me to cringe whilst listening to any of our recordings, but this actually made me grin a little bit *ahem*. I dont mind it. I had the artwork pretty much done the week after we recorded it, because I was inspired. It’s going to feature a cool chick on the cover that Michelle from YellowToothpick has given me permission to use - it should look pretty cool. I like EP’s better than albums. they are more immediate…though listening to albums is cool, but when you are in a band with no money, the more tracks you have to record the more you have to compromise because of costs. It sucks. Thus, while we remain poor and struggling, EP’s will be my medium of choice.
Girls Act Up
Thursday, 20 February 2003
Finally - the launch date of the Girls Act Up cd - a project that Women’s Health West was involved in and that I did the artwork for. It seems that anything to do with the launching of cds takes f-o-r-e-v-e-r where I am concerned. The artwork (which used drawings from girls in Secure Welfare) was done last year, but due to the inability of any bureaucracy to pull it’s finger out and get things moving, the launch didn’t happen until yesterday. It was great! Somebody’s Daughter Theatre Company performed some of the songs from the CD and some scenes from a show that they’ve been touring. The food was great, the speeches where interesting and it was awesome to see all my Women’s Health West friends again. (I’d link to their page, but since I left no one knows how to update it *sigh*). I’d like to be a freelance page updater for all those organisations who have set up a site and then let it fester, untweaked, for years.
La La La La
Thursday, 10 April 2003
Gigging at the Tote!
This will make a nice change from our almost mimed show at the Empress last week. The VicMusic site has an article about the noise restrictions that are currently threatening the Empress and I’m taking a petition along to the Tote tonight for people to sign. Should be a cool night…but I’m sooo tired. The latest house gossip is quite exciting! The people that grabbed it out from under my nose? They are no more. It all fell through. Quite bizarre. The second valuation was done yesterday and came through at a much better price - $20k more than the first valuation! So now it’s time for the finance people, who were very accomodating previously to start tormenting me and telling me I have to get a letter from my boss confirming that I will continue in his employment when/if (if the last week has taught me anything it’s that there’s always an ‘if’) I move to Queensland. I plan to ask him tomorrow…this could prove very interesting….
Need More Sleep
Friday, 11 April 2003
Oooh yeah. Bed at 2:30am and work at 9am. My eyebags are loving it! Last nights gig was a blast - we played well and it was great to really crank it up after the Empress show last week. We did two brand new songs that we only put together on Monday and they seemed to go pretty well - a little stumbley but not too bad. Abdoujaparov headlined and came on after us - they were R-O-C-K!! It was the best set I’ve seen them do yet (and we’ve played with them once a year for the past three years). Les was moaning later that his guitar was out of tune, but it wasn’t an issue. They did all their Abdou-classics, plus their Let Bogans Be Bogans song - they also played a killer cover of the Buzzcock’s Ever Fallen in Love which got the first dancer up…
I have persuaded M that the thing I want most in the world for my scary looming birthday is a digital camera. All the things I could do with one just boggles my brain (keep your mind above your belt people). I could have taken shots of the show last night and posted them today! I could take pictures of my souless little office and share them with the world. I could try and do what no one has ever done before and capture a decent band photo of Bidston Moss….doubtful, but I could try! Anyway, I know what model I want and found one on ebay - naturally the closing time for the bid was during last nights show, so I primed London-based brother to bid on my behalf. It went over my limit, but not to worry. I do have an inside source that can get me one at cost price…so I think I’ll be going down that path. Huzzah!
Phair Go
Wednesday, 28 May 2003
Just have been clicking around before going to find something to chomp on for lunch and had a listen to the new single Why Can’t I from Liz Phair. The new album is out at the end of June. Geeez, I hope it’s better than Why Can’t I. Let me just say, it’s a very apt title - I don’t know why she can’t, but it sounds to me that she’s been subjected to some record company ‘grooming’ (i.e. de-quirking). Maybe the poor girl just needs to make some money….though she was in an ad for GAP if I recall. I’ve been hanging out for her new album…I have my fingers crossed that the rest of it is not as repetitive and MOR as this. No phair. (Sorry). Maybe if I give it a few more listens? I’m trying to be hopeful.
[Pout]
Seven
Friday, 4 July 2003
Here we are.
Come on South Australian film makers - do your worst!
Sound for Survival
Monday, 21 July 2003
An interesting thing. Good driving music is also good painting music! Maybe this is widely acknowledged, but it has definitely passed me by until now. It’s probably also to do with the sad fact that the only cds I have at present are the ones I picked up for my car trip up here (my cd player bit the dust after serving me valiantly for the past nine years and I was doomed to singing myself north when the radio reception dropped out). So we have on the Painting Playlist albums from Brassy, Liz Phair, White Stripes, Ivy, Wilco, Fountains of Wayne, Spiderbait, The Spinnanes, Secret CD…however, the CD player is very picky about what it will and won’t play - it will only play Wilco if I turn the whole unit upside down, and it refuses to play Fountains of Wayne at all, ever.
Oh. On the topic of music. It was very kindly pointed out to me (in reference to a prior post) that I should subscribe myself to The Wedding Present/Cinerama mailing list. I did. It’s here. Did I mention my boss being away all of the month of May? When he got back, he casually mentioned to me; ‘I saw a band in Berlin.’
‘Oh,’ says Beth, thinking that he’s going to mention some ultimately boring, MOR, seventies reformation atrocity, ‘Who?’
Boss looks vague (not difficult for a professor). ‘Um. Whites? White something…’
Beth chokes.
‘Not the White Stripes??”
Boss is beatific. ‘Yes!! That’s them! That’s who I saw! I thought they were just the support band.’
Beth can’t help herself. ‘They were wasted on you!! Wasted!!! You saw the White Stripes. In Berlin. And you have no idea of the significance. Humph.”
Boss looks smug. Instant cred.
Eyebag Nation
Thursday, 14 August 2003
One late(ish) night in a smoky hard-rockin’ band practice room and I am rendered into boneless chicken status. *sigh* So what that I didn’t get to bed until 1am in my latest abode - where has my stamina gone? I think my new shorter hair makes things like eyebags more pronounced as there is less hair for me to hide behind. Too bad I didn’t consider that issue as I was ranting at the hairdresser ‘CUT IT OFF, ALL OF IT! OFF OFF OFF’. I wasn’t feeling wholly practical at the time. I inhabit Eyebag Nation. I am the President.
So guess who got Single of the Week in Beat Magazine? Huh? We did! :o) The rival publication - InPress - didn’t even rate us on their radar - our gig was listed and that’s it. I could rant as this is a fave topic of mine, but I won’t. Actually…just a tiny one? I’ll put it down the bottom so you don’t have to bother with it…
Besides my preoccupation with band stuff I have changed abodes. Dave and Ellise kicked me out of their house the other day when they found out that it was me, and not their cat, who pulled apart a whole box of tissues and frolicked in them on the loungeroom floor. In retaliation I borrowed Dave’s phone charger and now can use it as a bargaining tool to ensure the safe return of all my computer backup cds. Mwah ha ha ha ha. Actually, it wasn’t me with the kleenex obsession, it was Sonic. So now I’m at Mung’s house where I housesat so long ago and I am so in awe. They are the only people who, when stray transients like myself turn up, have a spare room all set up and ready to go! Amazing! Spare rooms, in my experience (not like I’ve ever had one) are where the junk goes. Not this time! This one is all neat with a towel on the bed and Rach even made me a hot water-bottle. I feel very spoilt. And glad.
No news on the stolen laptop front. Have been trying to hunt down the evil robber to no avail. Feel compelled to call police and ask for contact details for the company that the robber stole them from - and then *smirks* I will call them and try and do some kind of deal. Why would they want my laptop back? It’s probably only worth about $1200 at this point and it is travel-worn. That will be my line of reasoning, anyway. gah.
- Have my novel on track
- Have painted the ceiling in the back room
- Possibly have painted the ceiling in the kitchen
- Have vacuumned out my poor little dust caked boat
Recovery
Sunday, 17 August 2003
So the CD launch is over. I breathe a sigh of relief. In a good way. I had an excellent time - we cranked out lots of old songs that were lots of fun to play. Christine made my night by rocking out on top of the foldback wedge… something I’ve been pleading her to add to her repertoire for years. We had such a fun night. There weren’t as many people as we’d hoped for - but then our publicity wasn’t great and it was all put together in a short amount of time. The freezing bloody weather didn’t help either. Even I was tempted to stay by the heater.
A Short Night Out
Sunday, 31 August 2003
Got to see Chris strutting her stuff with Mee Bar at the Duke of Windsor last night - very odd! She plays quite differently to how she does normally - still good, but more of a lead-breaky power chord goddess. After Mee Bar were the paeon to mediocrity, Second Dan. I didn’t know who they were at first, which was fine by me, because they were so awesomely crap, but then I realised they were one of the winners of the JJJ Unearthed competition, an extremely depressing revelation. They were basically a cover band i.e. all their songs sounded like covers. The front bloke ponced around, sweated a bit and went through all his poses like he’d been practicing them in the mirror for days on end. Argh! I just saw they got ‘Single of the Week’ in Beat (though it did include some pondering on when they’d be gracing The Footy Show…which should give people some idea of where they’re coming from.) Anyway, the next band wiped the floor with them - Daughter Boy Jao - they were great, kind of White Stripes, but in a good way. There ends the Sunday whine…
The Typing Tenor
Monday, 1 September 2003
Oh my god. Peter Brocklehurst posted a comment on [miaow]! *grin*
If you can’t be bothered following the link, this is what he said:
So glad i did it for you (made you shiver)
thank you for your kind comments.
with regards Peter.
PS glad to announce the release of my first single “Praise” by end of Sept.
I feel all cultural and smiled upon all of a sudden! Who is Peter Brocklehurst? Read this.
My Name is Luka…
Tuesday, 7 October 2003
Oooh. The first Bidston Moss baby is born! Didn’t know until last night, but Mung and Rach have produced Luka - a little boy. He was born last Thursday - the 2nd of October, which makes him a Libra with his birthday exactly five months after mine. It’s very odd when your friends start having babies all over the place - the next Bidston Moss baby is due on October 26th.
On other less exciting topics, today I got a new phone line, so I no longer need to cop the flack (mostly from M’s relatives) about the phone always being engaged. Having a teensy level of mobile coverage and no possibility of ADSL or cable, this was the best option. Of course, I have no spare phone cord so no one can get through anyway, but I have just sent out M to rectify this problem. Major discovery of yesterday? PMT can be lessened by measured does of annihilation - via a frenzy of whipper-snipping. Grrrr.
Glug
Monday, 27 October 2003
The gig last night at the Tote was pretty haphazard. Our drummer pulled out yesterday morning as he had to take his girlfriend and new baby home from the hospital - so Chris, Mung and I cranked out some songs minus the beats, plus a couple of [bilby] numbers as a practice for the show this Friday night. Lisa and Dennis turned up, and I seemed to get a lot of beer bought for me. I knew the night would take on an alcohol tinged spiral when, early on in the night, I asked Chris where her car was so I could put my luggage in it - she looked evil and confessed that we would be getting a taxi back to her house. I pretty much knew that it was all over - there’s only one main reason for doing such a thing and it is directly to do with TOO MUCH BEER. So, on top of my cold, too much beer was the last thing I needed. Then I found out that Chris wasn’t even working today, whereas I had to drag my butt out of bed at 7am. Thus, my boss, having not seen me for two months, took one look at me and said, “you look wrecked”.
I couldn’t argue. I said that my cold had not improved over the weekend and that I thought a bit more sleep might put me right…so….am going home in a few minutes to tend to my sore sad smuffy head. It’s all my own fault. Argh. I need slllllllllllllllllllllllleeeeeeeppppp.
[snore]
Hallo Ween!
Friday, 31 October 2003
Today is another evil Melbourne day. M keeps telling me he is shirtless when I speak to him, and exults the wonders of his weather. Could I be any further away?
The [bilby] cd launch is tonight and I am leaving work now to try and make the Datsun run with the aid of a phillips head screwdriver. Wish me luck.
Cup Eve Dentaphobia
Monday, 3 November 2003
The [bilby] gig went pretty well, and I’m glad it’s over now! Pressure was on to have it all pretty tight. Photos fromthe show didn’t turn out that well (my fault - I didn’t give good camera instructions i.e. my camera only holds 18 photos so shoot wisely, and don’t shoot from the back of the room…d’oh). now back in scary work grind. Haven’t begun my nanowrimo yet :o( and am feeling guilt pangs. Finished ‘The Goblet of Fire’ on Sunday morning - it was actually quite brilliant. Now I just have to ask nicely to borrow the final one.
Have been playing at being a mechanic on the death-trap that my sister lent me. (I can only assume she was hoping that I quickly met my demise - as she forgot to mention that there were no indicators and that the car would die every time you take your foot off the accelerator.) However, I thwarted her evil plan by opening the bonnet, almost keeling over when I saw that there was no round thingy that holds the air filter there, staggered around to the opposite end of the car and found it in the boot, looking mutinous. So I took a guess and whacked it where it seemed to fit, and joined up the hoses etc. Then I played with those screws that seem to adjust the timing and managed to make it not conk out but just shudder mildly when no acceration is being applied. But I cannot make those bloody indicators work, and it’s driving me (sorry) insane!
Anyway, I’m not sure why I’m writing here, as I should be novel-ing. Problem is - I’m swamped with genre choices - do I go romane, young adult, crime or quirky? My head hurts. Actually, so does my tooth. I’m hoping it’s not to do with the sour snake lollies that I ate in the cinema yesterday while watching Intolerable Cruelty. I have just looked up ‘fear of dentists’ have established that I am dentaphobic - this is a direct result of having a dentist practically kneel on me and extract four of my perfectly happy (though overcrowded) teeth, an infected wisdom tooth and numerous other near-fatalities. So I call my newfound wonder-dentist this morning, due to my sour-snake-lolly twinge and she’s on leave! So I have to see a dentist of unknown quantity, just as I’d begun to trust the excellent Marija, who actually answered me without laughing too hard when I asked for a quote on how much it would be to give me a general anaesthetic to clean my teeth and do a filling.
About nine hundred dollars.
*sigh*
ow…my head
Monday, 10 November 2003
Thank-you to Bean for calling me on Friday night when I was indulging in some lonely whining, and Danny for trying to get me to the exhibition/Rob Roy, even though I couldn’t make it because cleaning Boat took longer than I thought it would. Poor Boat. I have to figure out a way to get it north. It’s so brave and true, weathering it’s separation, all alone *sob* I washed the outside, soaked up eight or nine buckets of water from under the floor, secured the hatch back on with rope (it had blown off at some point - thus the vast amounts of water) and generally perked it up a little bit. And got sunburnt in the process.
Last night was the second [bilby] gig at the Planet Cafe. I’m not sure why I drank beer, but I got on a bit of a roll. Thank god that I went home with Christine when I did, my head is a mess, I am subsisting on Panadols and water. I feel quite astonishingly vile. I think I was saved from feeling even worse by Jody greeting us with an amazing dinner, that we all sat and ate in a civilised fashion at about 1am.
For some reason, the most loathed air vent in my office has descended to sub-zero temperatures and I am about to go and fill the emergency hot water bottle (that N thoughtfully brought in last time this happened).
EBay 12 Steps
Thursday, 13 November 2003
Inspired by Scott and then urged on by my own self, I have been haunting ebay for a treat to give myself in return for surviving this three week grind (I’m talking work, not catching up with family/friends/band practice etc.) Anyway, so today I pounced on the two little things I wanted. Huzzah! Huzzah!
Not one, but four hard cover Saint books for my collection….
And a video tape of Clouds video clips - for $2!!
I can see M wrinkling up his nose in desolation as he reads this - don’t worry M! I got you a present too! (And I would link to it, but then it wouldn’t be a surprise - let me just say, it’s culinary and is not likely to be found in Hervey Bay).
She Writes…While Bitten
Friday, 2 January 2004
I am still pulling myself by my fingernails over the craggy piles of crud in order to get a report on fire and it’s related costs to my boss next week. Oh god. As I’m spending so much time online finding information sources, etc etc, I have decided to also use the time in a less boring way - downloading music! As I can’t afford to buy any, I’m going to compile my own playlistss, and the site I’m loving is Epitonic. The main thing that prompted this was a craving to listen to something like The Moon & The Melodies - something soothing and lyric-less to drown out birdsong, powertools and television noise. I found some cool Harold Budd, Labradford, Arab Strap (OK, so that’s not lyric-less)…and then I remembered that I had dabbled with Gnutella a few years back, so I downloaded XoloX and ShareBear and have begun poking around with those as well. However Epitonic is my toy of the moment…though with a dial-up connection patience is a virtue.
As I attempt to write, I have had to set up a mozzie coil under my desk to ward off the bastards…there must be sandflies as well, or how else could I suddenly look down at my right hand and discover a huge welt on it without feeling anything? On top of the desk I am burning rose-geranium oil in an effort to drown out the quite horrific stench of the mozzie coil. Talk about multi-tasking. Dave and Rie are buying a new car. I’ve suggested a Humber; large, reliable, invented-before-the-invention-of-the-crumplezone kind of cars, but I would be equally happy with..um…one of those groovy Citroens or the super-sexy vintage Volvos - I am not joking, they are seriously cool.
Gigantic…
Sunday, 18 January 2004
I know where I want to be on the 1st of May this year! A chance to see the Pixies play! Oh oh oh. Want want want. OK. That’s enough. I spent today tortured further by the heat, and having my moods controlled by the nearness of the electric fan. The bloody saga of the door didn’t help either. Then I went and vacuumned for my good friend Faye (M’s mother) and doused myself in her pool. Am now feeling vastly improved after consuming barramundi and chips with a bottle of VB. My latest mozzie bites could be taken for extra breasts if they weren’t on my ankles. Sexy.
Bargain Time
Sunday, 29 February 2004
Lisa was here and gone in the blink of an eye! New guests arrive tomorrow to be picked up at 5pm from the bus station. In the two days of no-guests buffer zone we have had a triumph of bargain-hunting. Saturday morning we left the house with one goal only - to comb the op-shops for an electric fan. Usually when we leave the house on a Saturday morning it’s to do washing, go shopping, go swimming, get a coffee, read the paper, hit Bunnings and stop at any garage sale we see. So, to set off with one goal was strangely invigorating. We didn’t end up finding a fan, but other, better-er things.
For ages I’ve been itching to get to the big op-shop at the other end of town. There is one near it where I got a great standard lamp two weeks ago (painted electric blue - but I plan to change that); but I had a good feeling about this particular one. Last time I was in Melbourne I went to Myer to look at Food Processors. (This tangent ties in, I promise.) For two reasons; one, because I have a $100 Myer voucher and two, because M is getting very tired of making me pesto using our blender and the poky end of the wooden spoon. It’s not the blenders fault - it’s just designed for making cocktails, not greenly edible delight. So. I found a food processor in the Wonder-OpShop. Almost fell through the floor with glee. It was a whole eight dollars. I took it to the register. It had a yellow sticker on it. This meant, the lady confided, that it was actually four dollars. Jesus wept. I grasped it to my bosom, or thereabouts.
M exited the Wonder-OpShop clutching an old Sunbeam chunky toaster. Our toaster has worked beautifully since the day we bought it from a deceased estate garage sale in Williamstown - but no one could call its ‘distressed melted plastic’ look endearing. I tried to explain to M that I have spent the last eight years carting my own old Sunbeam chunky toaster from house to house, as it works intermittently and looks so chrome plated and sexy that I can’t bear to get rid of it. He ignored me. Got his new one home and it behaves exactly the same as mine does - intermittently….
Anyway - we just tried out the Four Dollar Food Processor out on a bagful of basil-goodness. Magical. It was made to create pesto. In fact, it was so much better than the ‘blender and the stick’ method that M and I both looked at it, astounded by the wonder of the technology that had, until now, passed us by. And now we get to spend the Myer voucher on something cool!
So…you would assume that the bargain day was over. No way. On the way home we went to the recycle shop that adjoins the tip. There is always an abundance of freaky stuff there, but this time… this time our wishes were surpassed. I found a back seat for our HiAce van! This is extremely cool because it means that from now on, when we have more than one person visiting, we don’t have to cruise everywhere in the Humber (which I like to keep for special occasions). It fits perfectly.
The way you pay for stuff at this place is to look for the guy holding an excercise book. He is the man that conducts the sales. So we track him down and take him to the seat I found. He looks thoughtful.
“It’s in pretty good condition…”
I hold my breath. If he says more than $30, we’re toast.
“How’s six bucks sound?”
I marry him on the spot and we fly to Vegas….
No. Actually, M and I look tres cool and say casually, “Oh, that’d be fine.” While v.uncasually scrambling for our wallets. Not only a seat, but a baby capsule as well. (It is at this point, if my mother ever read my blog, that I would instruct her not to get excited…I digress). Mung and Rach are bringing Luka, who is almost five months, and I said I’d hire them a baby capsule if I could. So I’m hoping they will be wildly impressed by the fact that we bought two, perfectly good ones super cheaply. Of course M and I have no idea how to fit it or anything, and I’m sure that our neighbors are completely submerged in rumours of their own invention after seeing M and I standing in the front garden pondering the baby capsules with expressions of blank incomprehension.
Sleep
Wednesday, 10 March 2004
 |
I don’t think my bad sleep last night was anything to do with the futon mattress that I sleep on which is on the floor of my mother’s study. I’m not sure what it was - maybe the soy chai that I made with my new chai syrup (trying to make my own Hudson’s Coffee Chai Latte) - anyway, whatever it was, I had weird frustrating dreams. I dreampt that my mum and Christine had organised me |
| to play ten songs on guitar at this little venue near where I’m staying. I thought it might be kind of fun, and was feeling OK about it because I thought I’d be playing my acoustic guitar. But when I asked Chris whether this would be OK, she said I should definitely play electric. That’s when I got worried, because I haven’t played for a while and my hands were stiff. So in my dream I began to practice. Chris was there. I couldn’t remember any of my songs. So she suggested I play Like It - a Bidston Moss tune. So I kept beginning it, and kept beginning it, but couldn’t get past the first verse. It was starting to drive me nuts and by this time I was half awake, unable to comprehend why the hell I couldn’t get any further in the song. Then my mum knocked on my door to wake me up. I lay there for a minute and then it jumped into my head: Take off, my dress, it’s not, dirty, don’t mind, windows…I’m not ashamed. But just as I typed this I realised the other reason that I may not have known the words - I don’t sing them. Chris does. *sigh* |
|
Boots & All
Tuesday, 16 March 2004
Meant to post this on the weekend, but am too scared to use my mothers antique laptop. I mentioned a while back that I was hugely impressed by the Australian Story that profiled Peter Brocklehurst. Basically the whole thing was rehashed in print in the Good Weekend magazine last Satruday. It’s a great article - and you can find it online here. Now I just have to get his album while I’m down in Melbourne. Did I mention he left a comment on my blog? He did. Huzzah! Now, if David Gedge would like to drop in and leave a small hello…?
Wave of Mutilation
Wednesday, 14 April 2004
They’re really back! Oh Claire, you are my friend, but would you mind if I flew over and locked you in a room after stealing your ticket to see the Pixies? Pleeeese? NME have the lowdown of their first show - that I found via No Rock n Roll Fun. Check the setlist. RAWK! I’m shrivelled with envy.
But It Paws…
Friday, 25 June 2004
Ooooh-eeee. Two things - and they’re actually band related, nothing to do with house, cat, food, work or money. Huzzah! Almost a year to the day I got an email yesterday saying that the ABC 4 Minute Wonders video clip for the Bidston Moss song Seven is now complete! I was a bit scared to view it, as I thought the chances of it not really suiting our style (yes, I know, I sound like a wanker) were large. However, all my fears were unfounded - it’s actually very, very cool! If you want to take a look you can download it in it’s entirety here (4mb) - but if you’re on a snappy fast connection I’d suggest you go and check out the whole site they’ve made in its honour. CuteyBitey. Go! Go now!
The other thing! You can hear us on Stingers on Tuesday night - Channel 9 - which we don’t get, so I am going to have to hit M’s sisters place and commandeer their television. Check out this excellent Stingers site, because it actually mentions our name. The excitement! It takes such a Long Time for these things to come to fruition. I was somewhere in Jerilderie driving the Humber toward Hervey Bay this time last year when I just happened to have enough reception on my mobile to receive the call about the Seven clip! The Stingers thing came through in April - but I kept expecting it not to actually happen. What could undercover cops want with a song about M deciding on what wood to use on Boat and me shopping at Savers and hating coca-cola? Who cares! Not me!
Good Things & Visitors
Thursday, 1 July 2004
Saw Cyndi Lauper perform Time After Time accompanying herself on dulcimer last night on 110%. She sounded (and looked) amazing! Would love to see one of her shows. The weather this morning is sublime - M has been sent for supplies because there is so little left in the cupboard that roast catleg is looking like a viable option. We have M’s great friend PGR and his daughter arriving late this afternoon (I hope it’s late because the house looks like it was recently subject to bombing by enemy forces) - M is so happy he is dancing around and making a million plans on where to drag these poor people. I think he’s in denial that they will only have two nights and one full day here.
I do endeavour not to be too much of a TV junkie, but Amanda Redman just does it for me. I loved her in At Home With The Braithwaites - and the pilot of New Tricks is screening tomorrow night. I will be a courteous hostly person and tape it. I am now going to do some work whilst simultaneously praying for some suicidal male mudcrabs to jump in the crabpots - purely to impress the guests.
Belated
Monday, 23 August 2004
This sucks. You would think that after they’d given a company $20,000 to make a kickass video clip, they’d be a bit more on the ball. I could swear a lot here, but then they would probably label me ungrateful, which I’m not - the clip is fantastic - but, with so much money involved you would assume that the ABC would create a bit more hoopla than ‘oh sorry - we forgot to tell you it was on rage over the weekend’.
Dear All,
I just received the email to say that BIDSTON MOSS - ‘Seven’ was played on rage on Fri Night/Sat Morning at 1.25. I’m really sorry that I couldn’t let you know, but I didn’t see the email until today. I will make sure that if there is a replay that you are sure to know.
Best wishes,
Ann Chesterman
Producer, ABC New Media
http://www.abc.net.au/4minutewonders
Levitate Me
Monday, 23 August 2004
Instant balm to the aggrieved soul. The arrival of a completely unexpected Pixies DVD!! My early Christmas present from Honeybone Inc. Am irretrievably thrilled. Here’s me dancing with it under the banana tree:
Many genuflections in the general direction of Melbourne. It’s made my week! Now I can get on with…painting the TANK…while looking forward to the first viewing tonight. I have a stubby of Coopers Sparkling specifically for the occasion.
Hohner Melodica Soprano
Thursday, 26 August 2004
I’m loving mine. Particularly as there is one on ebay right now for $45. Mine was $2. OK, so the inside is probably all manked up with someone elses spit, but I’ve been playing it for weeks now, and haven’t succumbed to some weird Hohner borne virus. They still sell them in shops, apparently. I’m having fun playing it along to some tracks on my new cd by The Tulips.
Reformation?
Saturday, 4 September 2004
Along with the Pixies and other, less exciting bands (from a similar era - god I feel old - old) there is a rumour - a fairly meaty rumour, that The Wedding Present have reformed. If only it was true! I got a post on their mailing list that says:
As a resident of Yorkshire in the UK, I tonight
was pleasently suprised to see a regional TV programme
called “The Wedding Present”.
I assumed this was a re run of a documentary from
1995(ish)
Great, I thought, haven’t seen that.
However, it was a NEW documentary describing the
history of the WP and Cinerama, explaining that
Cinerama had run it’s course and the WP had now
reformed!!!!!!!!!
Honest. It featured Mr Gedge, his mum, his dad, Sally
and Simon! So it’s from the horses mouth (so to
speak).
So from the Cinerama side of my mind I shead a tear,
but from my WP side YYYYYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEESSSSSSSS!!!!!
I sit here, face covered in squashed up aspirin, full of teenage hope.
I Wanna Be Sedated
Thursday, 16 September 2004
Another Ramone gone….
Petition: Save the Palace
Tuesday, 19 October 2004
OK - I haven’t seen heaps of shows at the Palace; those that I can remember include Dinosaur Jnr (I then had a headache for three days - LOUD!) , Weezer, um - I didn’t get admitted to see the Wonderstuff because I had no ID (groan) - who else? Can’t recall, but this topic is bringing to mind lots of other killer shows I’ve been to in St Kilda - the Juliana Hatfield Three, Belly, Morphine, Jeff Buckley, oh - and getting a boot in the face seeing Rancid at the P.O.W.
Anyway. The point I’m trying to make, is that by shutting down the Palace, Melbourne will be losing one of it’s more kick arse venues. It’s bigger than the Corner and the P.O.W, but it’s not the Rod Laver Arena. It needs to stay. Fuck the ‘developers’. Surely it should be obvious to everyone by now that the last few ‘developments’ in St Kilda should be removed with some kind of giant hoover. I remember in 1994 writing a feature article on the ‘development’ of the St Kilda Sea Baths. What a joke they turned into. Why don’t they redevelop the Novotel? OK - the Palace isn’t a wildly attractive piece of architecture, but it plays an essential role in Melbournes live music scene. Thus, I have signed the petition to save it, and you should too…
John Peel RIP
Wednesday, 27 October 2004
A big loss. Especially to lovers of decent music.
http://www.nme.com/features/110323.htm
Saturday Night Fever
Saturday, 6 November 2004
M is watching Ghostbusters. Sorry. He was watching Ghostbusters, but has now moved on to Ghostbusters II. Saturday night television is very thin on the ground. I remember when Ghostbusters was the most must see movie in my 13 year old life. Naturally I wasn’t allowed to see it, but naturally I figured out a way that didn’t involve waiting for it to come out on video. Beta-video. I am sitting here with my tres cool Tip Shop headphones on that have a separate volume knob on each ear plus the option to switch from stereo to mono (though why you would want to bother is so far eluding me). I am endeavouring to get up to speed on my Nanowrimo novel - I was up to date on Friday, but spent yesterday and today in a smuffy, flu-clogged haze. Now I’m about 4000 words behind, goddamnit. Had I not been stonkered by sickness I would now;
Instead I’m sitting on my arse, breathing stertorously through my one working nostril, looking up how to spell the word ’stertorously’, chipping away at my novel and downloading lyricless writing music with Shareaza. God. I did find the Moon and the Melodies though, one of my all time favourite albums to take long baths to. I have it on vinyl. Somewhere.
For Ever Thwarted
Wednesday, 15 December 2004
One of my friends is putting together a cd of all his friends hopeless attempts at writing their own Christmas songs. I love stuff like this. I have songs kicking around in the back of my head that have been there for years. The problem is M. Every day he plays a song or two on the acoustic guitar, and says sweetly, “There B, that was just for you. A fleeting musical moment, never to be heard again.”
Where other girls might swoon smitten to the floor, I growl grumpily. There are always a few songs that keep coming back, and I would like to record them myself. You would think that someone who was so kind as to let his tunes flow into the ether for my pleasure, would jump at the chance to let me play around with them. Oh no. I’m not allowed to touch. I’m not even allowed to use one for the Christmas CD that only about ten people will ever hear. Why couldn’t M have been just a shipwright, or a plumber, or even a painter? I am doomed to a life with someone who will never listen to one of my songs with shining eyes and parted lips. It will always be ‘yeah - the snare sounds good’ and ‘there’s a bit much reverb on the vocals’.
Stampy.
No Sweat
Thursday, 16 December 2004
Oh god. I can drink tea again! The humidity has (I assume temporarily) left the building. Suddenly the day is divine. I am, however, at the end of my tether with the comment spam that is slowly dragging me under. If anyone has any suggestions - try to comment - but before you do; I have already been using WPBlacklist, and although it’s great, it is too buggy. It either doesn’t let anyone comment, or spits out errors at legitimate commenters. God. I don’t know what to do. I have been home for twenty minutes and 39 spams have arrived. Spent last night recording my Christmas song, M mixed it down today and it’s in the post. Finito!
Seductive Sounds
Thursday, 16 December 2004
What’s almost as good as watching Clive Owen on the screen? Listening to him narrate Walk On By.
Mmmmmm.
I’ve been podded!
Friday, 17 December 2004
I stuck up a couple of songs up there on the left, one of them being the one I did for my friends Christmas cd - and lo and behold, Tony tells me he’s podded it! Suddenly I feel validated. I’m on an IPod. It’s probably the nearest I’ll ever get to having one. So, if Tony likes it, other people might too - click the bear for Miaow’s Melancholic Christmas Tune.
With the house pressure easing a little bit I have been getting a bit more musicky and have been downloading like a fiend. My mate over in I-Oh-Wah has recently sent me a couple of excellent links. I’ve got hold of some video footage (the accompanying audio is surprisingly kickass) of the Pixies playing in Montreal last month. You can get it here. Velouria gives chills! Also, over at noaloha.com there are a stack of Breeders clips including live footage, interviews and music videos. I’ve got GetRight working over time.
Answer by song title
Wednesday, 16 February 2005
…via Zucchinis in Bikinis & Spreegirl:
Choose a band and answer only in song titles by that band: Bidston Moss
Are you male or female? Muttonbird
Describe yourself: Mud Muppet
How do some people feel about you? Bother
How do you feel about yourself? Up & Down
Describe your ex-boyfriend: I Used To Like You
Describe your current boyfriend: Honey Bee
Describe what you want to be: Armadillo
Describe your current mood: Cerulean
Describe your friends: Chunky Bits 
Share a few words of wisdom: Goodbye Couch & Galore
Poor Hilary…Not!
Wednesday, 11 May 2005
Over on Corante there is a great post that picks apart a whine by Hilary Rosen (the former head of the RIAA - the hopefuls that tried to kill Napster and file-swapping via lawsuits). Hilary’s whine may just be a publicity bid…but still…
Update: this is funny too…
And on the topic of Steve Jobs, Apple and IPod - there was an interesting article in yesterdays Age about him, chronicling his often out-of-whack decision making and predicting Apple’s commercial demise… (One day I’ll have a Mac. One day….)
Exhaustable
Tuesday, 17 May 2005
Miaow has been down (not put down, just down), due to the delightful habit of my chosen domain registry deciding to ignore changes that I made a few weeks back. Hate them. Also have had a blast of a weekend, with M arriving on Thursday night - we did dinner, the big party for Ellise and I on Friday night, an even bigger wedding on Saturday and into the early hours of Sunday, and a visit to Boat and dinner with friends (also on Sunday). Then I had to go with M to Spencer Street Station and put him on a bus to Avalon while sobbing miserably. Throughout all of this, my landlords have been sequestered away in North East Victoria and are only due back today - so I had a few hours after work last night to tidy up the wreckage of my bedroom and cook my first dinner. Then… I went to my first band practice in over a year! There were some stumbles, but I was surprised at how good some of the songs were - they were smoking.
Review Review
Wednesday, 18 May 2005
If you are into your music (hello Ian) here are some interesting reviews from Pitchfork, who don’t hold back at all - it’s so refreshing. Here’s a few lines from the review of Weezer’s latest:
‘Right from the start of Make Believe, when Weezer lurches into a flaccid take on Joan Jett’s “I Love Rock N’ Roll” with an unfathomably horrible speak/sing vocal from Rivers Cuomo (think “I like girls who wear Abercrombie & Fitch”), you can hear hundreds of critics mouthing “no no no” and going into crumpled shock. What’s more disconcerting is that the song gets worse over the course of its three minutes (let’s just say “Framptonesque voicebox solo” and get back to repressing the memory)– and it’s the album’s first single.’ […more]
The Go-Betweens get a much better reception for their latest Oceans Apart - while Garbage get damned for Bleed Like Me, Architecture in Helsinki get the goods and The Arcade Fire are lauded. (I am v.annoyed I left that cd in Hervey Bay. Grr.) So you see, I am getting a lot of work done here today, what with reading music reviews and experiementing with the new sandwich press.
[blushes]
Thursday, 2 June 2005
How embarrassment to read back what I wrote in my ‘Nomadic Bear’ post. Such a sooky-la-la. I think it was a result of the cold I had, as well as too much time in the office. Rae is right, I have to get OUT more. Anyway, I have already been adopted for two outings this weekend - so I have NOTHING to whine about. I even get to move house for a few days - back to Mung’s place in Collingwood while he is away. I can lounge around at will, knocking back glasses of my Tia Maria stuff and (…wait for it) cooking my own dinner! Too cool.
In other freaky news, M has been asked to contribute a song from his exaustive back catalogue to an upcoming compilation being organised by Bart Cummings. This is only weird if you consider that when you google the word ‘miaow’ his band comes up first, and this page comes up second. M went to get some dubbing done at a Hervey Bay studio [gasp] which is run by a guy who came fifth in the Eurovision Song Contest about twenty years ago - whose song subsequently went to number one in Germany, thus providing him with juicy royalty cheques for about ten years. That’s the kind of money I want to make. It’s called ‘passive earning’. I yearn for the passive earn…(maybe I could get paid royalities for rhyming?)
My Velouria
Friday, 22 July 2005
OMG! The Pixies are putting out a new album! Maybe this will mean they will finally tour Australia. Well, we can dream…
Streets of Your Town…
Sunday, 31 July 2005
M and I went to Daylesford on Saturday to see the Go-Betweens play at The Palais. God! It was fan-tastic! I will be posting a review up here in a day or two. I wish there was a rule that Grant McLennan stayed behind his guitar at all times, because his guitarless posturing throughout Cattle & Cane (which I’d been waiting for all my life) made it impossible to watch. Other than that, it was brilliant.
About Last Night
Friday, 5 August 2005
Last night was one of the reasons that I am happy to be back in Melbourne. I went to the New Buffalo show at Manchester Lane. The supports (Holly Throsby, and Mountains in the Sky) were just as good as the headliners, the mix was truly brilliant and the venue was perfect.
I had been a bit cautious about New Buffalo, having seen Sally Seltmann do her thing at the Corner Hotel somewhere around 2001/2002 - where she stopped playing and demanded that everyone should stop talking and listen, which didn’t go down hugely well. Last night, however, was a different story. One of the guys from Mountains in the Sky (the other one was M’s old drummer) took on keyboard/sampling duties (and a brief foray with a melodica), and Rae Howell on vibraphone and trumpet was a total highlight.
Holly Throsby is a bit of a guitar legend, and weaved her own kind of spells over the audience. She has this kind of delicate aching husky voice thing going on, and almost all of her songs were equally as good as the couple that JJJ thrashed to death - others were even better.
That’s it then.
Friday, 5 August 2005
It’s all over. No more office, bad ventilation, mindless frustration at lack of direction, crapola computers and particularly, no more vista of the wall out the window. I will, however, miss the people that I worked with a great deal. My boss never advertised jobs, he preferred to employ friends of friends, which somehow guarranteed a run of people who I would have considered myself lucky to meet in any situation; co-habiting in our hellhole of an office was almost (almost) a pleasure. Tonight, my send off was a little bit lacking, due to short notice. J had already planned to leave on a hiking trip, my boss has sinusitis and my sister decided she couldn’t be bothered to come. So we have planned a proper night out on the 18th of August, and have given everybody due warning.
I feel like poking myself to see how I feel about leaving, but I don’t really feel much at all. I hated the job. I will keep in touch with the people that I’ve met - those who have helped me via funny emails, phone calls to Hervey Bay, hung out with me at those jaw-stiffeningly boring conferences and timely chai lattes *sniffle*
Ah well, it’s a new start on Monday, a new moon tonight. I think it’s all for the best. Who knows? With part time hours, I might even get an album recorded. I can only hope.
I like their old stuff…
Sunday, 14 August 2005
Have lots to blog, and no time to blog it [sigh]. Congratulations to Rae & Tony - Albert has arrived!! I’m guessing there is lots of exhaustion and relief going on over their side of town!
Last night I went and saw Eddi Reader play at the Cornish Arms. I saw her last time she was out - about three years ago, same venue. If you’re not familiar with her, she had a hit in the late 80’s with a terrible song called Perfect - as in: it’s got to be ee ee ee ee ee ee, perfect. I know. A bad song. At that time she was in a band called Fairground Attraction, and when I began sharing a house with Christine in Geelong, she put me on to their albums, and I loved them. Perfect in no way represents any of her other stuff - she’s really more of a Scottish torch singer. So it was Chris’s birthday last Friday and I got her a ticket to the show last night (which was lucky, as it was sold out by the time I got there). Four of her other friends decided to come along as well, and this is where the weird bit happened. I’m not really sure why they all came? They certainly didn’t come to see Eddi Reader, as they spent the whole show in the most visually inaccessible spot in the whole place. And while everyone in the rest of the pub was being spellbound by what was happening on stage, they were chattering up the back, one of them wandered to somewhere nearby to play the pokies. I kind of felt like I’d dragged them all there - which I hadn’t. I also felt bad because I just couldn’t stay around them - about a third of the way through the gig I just had to move to where I could actually see the stage.
So I suppose that they’d come along to hang with Chris for a night out, which was a shame, because with what the tickets cost, they could have had a much fancier night out elsewhere. Chris did enjoy it, sort of. She did say, which made me momentarily grit my teeth, ‘I wish she’d played more of her old stuff’. Ack. If bands only ever played their old stuff…well…DER. Unfamiliar songs aren’t BAD songs, they’re NEW songs. Of course they’re not as comfortable to listen to, and you don’t get the buzz of recognition, but new songs are exciting. They’re intriguing. Gah. I’m ranting. I’m just touchy on the subject. Playing new songs to an audience who just wants to hear their old favourites is always a leap of faith…
Ishews
Monday, 22 August 2005
I won’t be blogging for a bit, as I am having ISSUES.
Issues of little time, cranky people, other things that I might get in trouble for whining about (if I can’t whine on my own website, where can I whine? *sob*). Gah. I am playing a solo show at Wesley Anne on Thursday night, for two reasons. One is that C and I have not had time to get enough practices in to do our duo, and the other is that M won’t help me out by playing with me and thinks… Oh well, I shouldn’t write what I think he thinks. I’m supporting Gluefoot, and will be on around 8pm. 250 High Street Northcote. The End.
(…no doubt all of the above will just embarrass me and will be deleted by this time tomorrow. Maybe I’m just having a fit of pique.)
Headache gone from naming that song
Tuesday, 23 August 2005
Ohhh. This would save my brain in such a big way. I would probably gain a year of life from having this little gadget. Tres cool…
There will soon be no need to wait for the DJ to back-announce the title and artist of a great new song he’s playing on the radio. Just dial a number on your mobile phone, hold the handset next to the radio, and the answer is sent as an SMS…
Kiss My Butt Dylan Perry
Tuesday, 30 August 2005
OK, so I’ve been labelled a whinger. Naturally, my lovely friend who utilised the term is safely in the US, though unfortunately not in Mississippi with Katrina.
The truth is, I have malaise. I have ennui. The hysterical truth is that I am actually working at work and thus my regular time for blogging has been kicked in the guts. I can’t seem to organise myself out of my routine of the last three years. I’m sure it will happen. But at the same time I am having trouble sharing. That’s right. I don’t like sharing. Some things. M and I are sharing my laptop at present, and although he is quite happy, and I couldn’t think of a better person to share my beloved with (except maybe a total luddite who wasn’t interested in using it, ever) I still feel like I am being a hog when I use it at night, or during the day on weekends.
Which is why I am poking around at alternatives. Some involve money and some do not. Right this second there is a manky little laptop whirring away to my right as I install DSL on to its puny 2GB hard drive. If M looks at it and spits, I won’t chastise him (sorry Dennis).
My more frivolous, self indulgent option (which is where the money comes in) is to yield to my yearning for a Mac, and give M my laptop. I’m thinking of a souped up G3 Powerbook - a ‘Pismo’. From what I read online, a fair amount of people consider the Pismo to be their favourite Apple laptop. Although it came out in 2000, it was - sorry, is - very upgradable.
Another option is to just get M some old Thinkpad or Tecra from Ebay that will just run Firefox and Photoshop, which seem to be his two main requirements. We ponder here at [miaow] - we waste valuable time pondering while we should be concentrating on getting our recording rig set up. On that front, M has been my researcher, and we are a hair’s-breadth away from going with the EMU 1820 - and we are then going to build the machine around it. A lovely stable and silent machine that once functioning, will not be tweaked.
I Wanna Nano
Thursday, 8 September 2005
The Nano appeals to me greatly. I don’t need more than 1000 songs on something I’m going to carry around. And it looks like it’s tiny. Pencil thin. Ohhh, I must put in my tax return so I can semi justify my lusting.
The 15th Meredith Music Festival
Wednesday, 14 September 2005
Yahoo for me! I just booked tickets to the Meredith Music Festival! I went to the second ever one, and a few others in between times, however this line-up is one of the more excellent ones I’ve seen. We’re going to deck out our van as a camper, run our beer fridge off a car battery and eat krishna food from paper plates. Pray for good weather… last time I went it was a total dustbowl.
Does Holly Throsby have fries with that?
Thursday, 22 September 2005
I’ve just been watching SBS and an add for ‘McDonalds new-look restaurants’ [gag] just came on. The person singing the backing song sounded incredibly like Holly Throsby, but I can’t figure out if it was or not. Does anyone know? Having seen her play, I tend to doubt it, because she seems like such a nice person. But even nice people need pocket money…I suppose.
It’s Official. Meredith here we come…
Monday, 26 September 2005
It’s all Garbage
Wednesday, 28 September 2005
I am off in a few minutes to go and see Garbage play at the Forum. Am meeting L for dinner at our favourite haunt - the very unatmospheric Ito - which has startlingly good tempura vegetables. I am setting off blithely, having heard nothing of their latest album, but propelled by the rumour that this tour will be their last. Eeek! I didn’t go with my old housemate who saw them play the Palace years ago when somebody pulled off Shirley’s wedding ring and the band refused to play until it was handed back. I missed all the drama!
M is running around like a chicken, organising our next four days of sailing. We leave from Newhaven in Hoo-Ray! early on Friday morning and will be sailing to French Island and doing some general exploring of Westernport Bay. M is a wonder-bear. He has planned our meals each day, bought supplies - organised the lot! I think he’s hoping that I will have a fabbo time and beg him to take me sailing every weekend. We shall see. We are not so optimistic that we are not taking seasick remedies.
My Left Ear
Thursday, 29 September 2005
What a night was had! An excellent, if haphazard dinner at Ito. They didn’t have the entree I ordered. They didn’t have the wine we ordered. Then they brought us a glass each of the other wine we ordered instead of the actual bottle. Anyway, we battled on.
Garbage were absolutely a.w.e.s.o.m.e!! It didn’t matter much that I haven’t got their latest album yet, because they played stuff from all their older releases. Shirley Manson is a rock princess, and got each band member up to the microphone to say hello (note:- bass players should be exempted from this practice, as however witty and urbane they might be offstage, when trying to address an enthusiastic audience, they have an instant personality bypass).
Um, let me see. I’m Only Happy When It Rains - Push It - Cherry Lips (Go Baby Go) - I Think I’m Paranoid - Stupid Girl - Bleed Like Me - Queer - Androgny - Shut Your Mouth - Why Do You Love Me? - Supervixen - When I Grow Up. That’s just off the top of my head.
When they started playing, I thought that they weren’t actually that loud. But when they stopped. Oh. Oh dear. I must have been angled with my left ear toward the speaker, and it’s now fairly cactus. In fact, it feels like I have seawater stuck in it, a long way down. I am usually careful about earplugs, but the band started playing just as we got there, and we ran down to see them, completely forgetting about the noise factor. Goddamnit. This hasn’t happened to me since seeing Dinosaur Jnr at the Palace.
Anyway, Lisa and I bounced our butts off. Although she was quite a bit more sedate than me. I emerged after the show, red faced and so sweaty that I gave up on going to the loo as my jeans were stuck to my legs. I’m all charm.
The Rig
Sunday, 16 October 2005
It’s been too sunny to blog. Which isn’t exactly true. I spent most of Friday in the garden with myself in the sun, the laptop in the shade, researching my recording rig - which is proving to be quite frustrating. It seems that new motherboards appear all the time - I am trying to track down one that is recommended by Bob Lentini (who is the inventor of SawPro, SawStudio etc).
So, for the geeks out there, this is what I have so far come up with in regard to what I’m after.
Seagate 8M IDE 120g x 2
Asus P4C800-E Deluxe
Zalman CPU fan
1GB PC4200 DDR2 Corsair (2×512MB)
Matrox G450 DualHead video card (I know it’s old, I don’t care)
EMU 1820M
Coolermaster Real Power 450W Silent Power Supply
Intel P4-630 3.0G CPU 2MB Cache 775pin
GMC X-21 Trinity Case
Some CDRW
All I have so far is the EMU 1820M, which is the main thing. I am also thinking of an external hard drive usb case, but I’m a bit vague on what kind to get as I’m not sure what size normal Seagate IDE hard drives are… Am also wondering whether the CPU I have chosen is compatible with the motherboard, but it’s now midnight and I’m too tired to find out. Tomorrow. I’ll do it tomorrow. Anyway, this is what has been occupying my brain for the past few days (as has Hell To Pay - a George P. Pelecanos novel which has held me spellbound for three days. It’s tres excellent…)
To Flollop. Maldon.
Thursday, 27 October 2005
No one really knows what mattresses are meant to gain from their lives… They are large, friendly, pocket-sprung creatures which live quiet private lives in the marshes of Squornshellous Zeta. Many of them get caught, slaughtered, dried out, shipped out and slept on. None of them seem to mind and all of them are called Zem…
…The mattress flolloped around. This is a thing that only live mattresses in swamps are able to do, which is why the word is not in more common usage. It flolloped in a sympathetic sort of way, moving a fairish body of water as it did so. It blew a few bubbles up through the water engagingly. Its blue and white stripes glistened briefly in a sudden feeble ray of sun that had unexpectedly made it through the mist, causing the creature to bask momentarily.
(D.N.A always wrote so much better than I can ever hope to. Naturally those last two paragraphs were purloined from the HHGTTG via the Plain Vanilla page…)
Now I have introduced the topic, let me say without further flolloping that we NEED a MATTRESS. When M had the brain surge and sold all our possessions to the people that bought our house, naturally that included our bed… and our mattress. The mattress side of things I was not worried about relinquishing, as ours had kind of begun to sag. Upon