| Stories from the Hong of Kong |
[Mar. 20th, 2006|04:36 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  amused | ] |
At this point the two weeks in Canada seem like one big blur of alcohol, music, sleeping tablets,anti-biotics, ridiculously large food servings, and LOTS of shopping...or at least walking up and down streets trying to find something we could afford. On the other hand, there a few little things about Hong Kong that I I simply can't get out of my head and which have been confusing/plaguing me since my return. On the way over to Canada we stayed in honkers (as it is affectionately known) for a night....and on the way back we walked the streets like the Australian beer-drinking zombies that we were during our 16hr stopover. These were some of our discoveries. Sorry Stimpson, not much debauchery here...you'll have to consult the Gin Club for those kind of stories...
1. "Shanghai Tang" and "Wanko"
Something was seriously lost in translation here. I'm still not sure why no one has told the fine people of HK that perhaps Shanghai Tang and Wanko aren't the most appropriate names for female clothing stores. The magazine ads which appeared in Cathay Pacific's in-flight magazine were even worse. The ad for Shanghai Tang featured the image of a girl standing in a dirty HK alley way looking seriously hooker-shiek. And the image of a young HK girl wearing a beret and smiling next to a big sign that says Wanko really did lift my spirits after twenty hrs of flying. Thank you HK.
2. Plane-crash food court
Remember those big plastic buses you could eat in if dining-in at your local McDonald's restaurant? Remember how they were totally fun, and you and your friends (before you were aware of the moral horrors of McDonalds) could eat there in relative bliss? Maybe you even had a birthday there...I did. Well enter Hong Kong airport's version which (no shit) featured big plastic sections of a boeing 747 strewn out along the food court as if a big toy plane had seriously crashed through the roof and seperated into small sections. It was as if the HK airport authorities in their quick thinking had just decided to leave it there and (of course) convert it into a themed dining area. I know personally I couldn't think of anything better than eating inside a piece of toy fuselage just hours before boarding a real plane. Call me paranoid, but this was just plain weird. No thankyou HK.
3. Don't blow your nose in public
Not a bad idea really...I mean I do it all the time, but admit that it is kinda gross. So at first upon hearing this I thought, "yeah ok, no problems, when in rome...". That was until I realised that everyone just REPLACED blowing their nose with something much worse...exorcising phlegm demons. Oh my god, I have never been so repulsed in all my life. Everyone just seems to snort in through there nose or make choking noises as they clear their throat and coughed up little gems from the bowels of hell. This was at no time worse than on my oh....twenty hour flight from Toronto to HK when I was positioned behind a man as old as time itself whom I will from now on refer to as "hideous beast". So hideous beast invented this whole new hybrid between clearing his throat and vomitting which one of the good kids from Iron On called "spewting". At times it sounded like he was trying to cough up a small child which had somehow been lodged in his chest and then suddenly reached a point where he had worn out his own gag reflex and then just decided to vomit into a bag. I'm a sympathetic person...so much so I had to go and sympathetically spew. I think he also shat his pants a few times, but this was just a distraction from the spewting really. NO thankyou hong kong.
4. Respect your elders - push them around in a wheelchair
I often find points of cultural difference hilarious. The most hilarious for me was realising that elderly hong kong people...in fact anyone over 50...or anyone who even looked close to fifty and thought they could bluff it, demanded they be given a wheelchair and taken on to the plane first, before anyone else had boarded. Perhaps one or two of them had a genuine disability, but seriously, we counted about 25 wheelchairs lined up waiting to board our flight from Toronto to HK. I had not seen a precession such as this since the paralympics opening ceremony. And the people in the wheelchairs weren't happy...they were kinda rude and smug and acted like someone owed it to them to RESPECT them by pushing them around in a wheelchair. I mean, good on them in a way, it was just really funny because in Australia I think we have too much pride for that, and wheelchairs are the domain of bona fide disabled people...we'd rather fall over and die waiting to board a plane than board in a wheelchair. Too funny. Thanks HK. |
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| long lost LJ |
[Mar. 17th, 2006|02:39 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  bored | ] |
| [ | music |
| | air conditioning unit | ] |
God it's been so long since I've written in this thing and I feel like I almost have less to say than normal, but I am bored at work on my lunch break and not really sure what else to do. Lowlight of the day so far was being told that apparently my work OVERPAID me by about $300 while I was away in Canada, and now looks like I will have to pay it all back. Oh the joys. Lucky I am getting one of those Virgin credit cards so I can begin living in this fantasy world where I can actually keep my head above water financially. I guess my ass is now officially Richard Branson's whenever he feels like it. Ouch.
Anyway, so it's a little strange being back at work already after spending 16 days in Canada, I'm still zoning out occasionally which I am blaming on jet lag and just general disorientation. Occasionally it also feels like I am still on a plane...and I get this weird dizzy sea-sick feeling.
Canada was awesome, but I'm also pretty happy to be home, and looking forward to moving over to Hawthorne with my sister. I've always wanted to live near that cinema and now I can! Yes! My bad romantic-suburban-hell-fantasies can now be realised. Does anyone live in Hawthorne? Would be nice to have some friends there.
Nick and Vic, how is the overseas jaunt going? I haven't really been keeping up-to-date with the posts on LJ, so let me know how you are going? Brisbane misses you already. Same goes for everyone else. What's been going on?
XO |
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| All ex's please take note...kidding! |
[Dec. 9th, 2005|06:03 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | calm | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Cursive-Domestica | ] |
| Your Fortune Is | 
If you run into your ex on the street, just shift into reverse and keep going. |
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| Nada Surf |
[Nov. 2nd, 2005|03:55 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | hungover | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Teenage Fanclub - best of | ] |
Thanks to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) an_horse
for making Nada Surf songs go round and round and round in my
head...AARRRGGGHHHH!!!! Their new album is amazing. I wish Barsuk would
sign my band...
Contender for best lyric of the year:
"Maybe this weight was a gift...like I had to see what I could lift"
wow...why didn't I think of that...?
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| Quiet time |
[Oct. 21st, 2005|03:29 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  sick | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Fiona Apple - Extraordinary Machine (jon brion version) | ] |
I think Fiona Apple just said... "I don't want a home, I know that home
is where my habits have a habitat"...and she kinda rapped it. Is
that not awesomely awesome? Anyway...
For those of you who are interested a whole bunch of live journal nerds
will be playing short solo acoustic sets at Ric's tomorrow afternoon as
part of the "Quiet time" split ep launches. Playing times are
below, so knock yourselves out. As seems to happen with some kind
of regularity when I am supposed to play acousticly I have contracted
some disease that makes me sound like Madge Bishop. Rumours that
I may be performing in drag tomorrow in order to cash in on my
hot-hot-hot voice can not be confirmed nor denied at this stage.
Oh, and if the solo acoustic sets weren't enough to entice you
along...there will be camp-anthems and queer-riot tunes by "DJ Homo at
Heart"...If I wasn't playing I'd go just to see that...
QUIET TIME @ RIC’S SAT 22nd OCT
3pm – DJ Homo At Heart
4pm – Kate Cooper
4.30pm – Benjamin Thompson
5pm – Meredith McHugh
5.30pm – Ross Hope
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| Pre-tour Confusion |
[Oct. 3rd, 2005|05:46 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  contemplative | ] |
On Wednesday my band leaves to go on tour for 12 days. This is the
longest period of time we have ever been on tour. Oh my god, what do I
take? Do I even have 12 pairs of underwear? Eek! Most of my socks have
holes in them...oh dear. I really have been on the dole for way too
long. I feel I have really let myself go in certain areas. Not least of
which is my sleeping situation. I'm 25 and still sleeping on a matress
on the floor. Unless you're into camping, this is not that romantic.
I'm not into milk crates either, so that's not even an option. What's
more, it's not even a new mattress. I bought it off a friend a few
years back for like $50. Hmm... needyneddy,
maybe you should advise me about Super A-Mart...? Do wooden frames for
Queen size mattresses even exist? Who am I kidding I'm not even sure if
what I own is Queen sized. I'm sooooooo losing 'queer eye' points right
now. All I know is that it's really fucking big...like the biggest you
can get. This does not compensate for other parts of my life where I am
not the biggest you can get. God I am so funny. This has possibly been
the most random stream of consciousness post I have ever made. This
could be due to the million bottles of regret people purchased for me
at Ric's on Saturday night. I am fairly convinced I was still drunk at
5pm on Sunday afternoon. Oh the fallout...Oh the Romance... |
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| BEAT-en Down... |
[Sep. 19th, 2005|01:26 pm] |
At </a></b></a>needyneddy 's request I decided to do a proper post about last night...rather than merely summarising in her comments section.
Where to begin...? This is going to be long...sorry...but hopefully worth it...!
Yesterday afternoon I was summonsed to the powerhouse for a "staff
meeting", even though about two weeks previously I sent an email
requesting that I be taken off the roster and kinda be allowed to
'leave quietly'. Clearly due to my unparalleled bar service I was
invited to attend the auspicious staff meeting yesterday
afternoon. What they didn't tell me on the phone was that the
meeting was also doubling as an "employee assessment" interview
scenario, and tripling as a piss-up. So after the somewhat
awkward process (for both of us) of being graded as an employee by
someone I actually consider to be a personal friend, I hit the spark
bar for a free Pinot Gris. Or as Clare and Tommo kept calling
it...a "Deano Gris-io"...referring to my boss' love/addiction to said
wine. Thinking I was about to go home, I then had a shot of this
weird foreign vodka that I have never tasted before and wrote it off as
'research' or 'product knowledge'. Then came the part NO
ONE had told me about....the compulsory staff outing (no pun
intended) to brisbane's gay mega-club THE BEAT! I tried numerous
times to convince Clare and Tommo that we should sneak away before the
cabs came, but to no avail.
The next thing I remember is being handed a series of cards and
vouchers at the door by a man who looked like he had just stepped out
of an episode of the Sopranos...I am NOT kidding btw. Deano paid
for us all (God bless him) and then explained that for our $10 entry
fee we were entitled to 3 free glasses of champagne, and ten dollars of
"COCKATOO CLUB MONEY"...or as I pointed out previously..."COCK-OR-TWO"
club money. This seemed too good to be true...and it was.
Please note children...cockatoo club money...although it may appear
completely whimsical and harmless...almost like monopoly money...it
comes with a hidden karmic price!!
I then proceeded to the bar where I was met by overtly gay bartenders
wearing white waist coats whose primary function could only have been
to humiliate the staff wearing them. I mean seriously these waist
coasts would not have looked good on ANYONE. They should all have
been burned! It was like someone had made them from leftover
table cloth trimmings, but didn't actually measure the material
properly. Anyway, so I cashed in one of my free champagne
tix and after my first sip was taken on a magical mystery tour of my
past - mainly featuring memories of passion pop and vomiting.
This stuff seriously could have stripped paint off the walls...and
infact the entire place SMELT like it had been cleaned with the very
champagne I was drinking...or was that bleach/chlorine? Who could
tell?
Then started the embarrassing part of the evening where the champagne
started to send me slightly insane, and I was for some reason the
happiest man in the world to realise that a Tooheys New was only $3 at
the Beat on a sunday, and therefore I could get three with my $10 of
"COCK-OR-TWO" money. What a BARGAIN! Anyhoo... so I started
talking to a new powerhouse bar manager called Amity who I have only
ever spoken to over the phone, and for some reason thought it would be
really appropriate to tell her that I thought her girlfriend was REALLY
hot. Then I proceeded to apparently 'take off' Amity directly to
her face...without even knowing I was doing it. You see...I
thought I was taking off the character of "Ja'mie" from the ABC
mockumentary series 'we can be heroes'...but everyone else seemed to
think I was doing a 'better impression of Amity than Amity
herself'. Oh dear. All I remember from this point on is
Deano laughing AT me a lot (this can't have been good) and me
constantly saying "SERIOUSLY...FUGLY"...in the Ja'mie voice about 400
times. I thought I was the funniest person alive.
Then came...or perhaps just prior to some of this came the part where
we were able to cash in our BBQ ticket and choose from the Beat
Buffet...which in ANY context sounds confronting. I have never
been served a buffet BBQ by a series of drag queens, but I must say, I
think it was best described by Tommo as "Gay club meets David
Lynch". One of the drag queens seriously sounded EXACTLY like the
mafia guy on the front door as she asked if I wanted steak (insert
gruffest robbo accent)..."Do ya want STEAK!?". At this point I'm
beginning to understand why you are given so much free alcohol...just
so you don't FREAK OUT or even worse, piece together that the scary old
dude on the front door, was probably also a drag queen serving you
beef! Help.
So who's up for next week? hahhaha
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| (no subject) |
[Sep. 6th, 2005|03:12 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | cheerful | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Rilo Kiley - More Adventurous | ] |
The
following is a review of our debut album from this week's Rave
Magazine. Obviously I'm more than a little happy about it...
ALBUM OF THE WEEK
IRON ON – Oh The Romance
(+1/Reverberation)
Bris-indie rockers make hot love cool again
From the moment Oh The Romance opens, you feel like you’ve been thwacked in the face with a big rubber band. And what’s more, it felt good, and you wouldn’t mind if it happened again – say nine more times at least. It’s not the sting you remember – and there’s more than a few hidden in the lyrics – it’s the ‘fuck yeah!’ jolt of being
woken into wide-eyed alert, because you’ve just heard something with more energy than a room full of Pixies fans fed a diet of Red Bull and crack.
Opener Learn Today Earn Tomorrow has you clapping in instants and riffs up a
pre-synthesiser-Gerling storm, with singers Ross Hope and Kate Cooper each vying for the title of Sweetest Indie Vocalist 2005. Sweet, yes, but tight dynamics are at play, and the distinctive voice of each guitarist is given the chance to shine more than once
(Reck-less Pronto and More Than Tape represent for the femmes, while Playing Hard To Want and Hearts do the biz for the boys). All in songs wired with more hooks and crashing guitars than you could find in a box load of Death Cab For Cutie. The closing moments of The Safety compare with any of Sonic Youth’s finest electric onslaughts, and yet always throughout, the rhythm section of Ian Rogers and the sadly missed Nicola Phoe-nix maintain the control needed to keep the in-ventive
guitarists on track.
Iron On are something of a Brisbane institu-tion. Everyone’s been to an Iron On show at least once. Maybe a few people wondered if the ging-ham and Converse would last the distance, or one day be a fond memory for ex-students in newly-purchased West End apartments. If the fact that it would be impossible to exclude a single track off Oh The Romance from your iPod is any indication, Iron On are destined to be much more than fond memories for some time to come. A welcome burst of energy, sass, and great tunes – stuff to fall in love with.
**** 1/2
CHRIS HARMS |
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| (no subject) |
[Sep. 5th, 2005|12:10 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | amused | ] |
I am offically a loser. I must say, I'm not proud of this...but I can't deny that it did happen. It's confession time. Last night my sister convinced me to watch the two hour finale of Dawson's Creek. She's had it on tape for years and occasionally she'd mention that we should watch it, but I kept putting it off. A lot has happened this year, but I must say I was slightly shocked by our reaction. At least I had a vague excuse...I'd never seen it before...whereas my sister was watching it for the third time! Let me just say...OH MY GOD! I think we both spent at least half of the two hour long marathon crying!!! Yep, crying to Dawson's creek. I have never felt more gay in my entire life. Not even when I was actually kinda gay (kidding!). Fuck, it was appalling...but seriously, anyone who has ever seen it will attest (hopefully...come on, back me up here!!) that it is two hours of emotional terrorism. Kinda like the soapie equivalent of a Lars Von Trier movie. Either that or my sister and I are just total freaks...which is also highly probable.
In other news...Oh the Romance is released today!! YAY!
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| Rave On |
[Aug. 30th, 2005|02:21 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | stoked | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Donnie Darko - Soundtrack | ] |
This would without doubt be my most self indulgent post to date.
I figured it was about time I started balancing all my really emo posts
with happy ones.
I've come to embrace compliments more lately...I used to be really bad
with them...almost worse with compliments than with criticisms. I
used to get really embarassed by them and want them to go away. I
think we all need them occasionally though don't we? I guess one
of the things I've learnt recently is that you've really got to embrace
the good moments, because you really don't know when things are going
to go awry. Anyway, I read this today in Rave magazine and wanted
to punch the air like I was drunk at a Screamfeeder show...which is
kinda funny considering the context of their comments...Rave staff, you
really are too kind...
"We've heard the new Iron On ablum, Oh
the Romance, and frankly we think its terrific. Ross Hope, the
boy-half of the vocals team, is clearly the missing link between Tim
Stewart of Screeamfeeder and Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie..."
YES!!!! Now I can die happy...
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| Hey DJ - Spin that wheel |
[Aug. 25th, 2005|11:22 am] |
| [ | mood |
| | excited | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Death Cab - Plans | ] |
So Iron On have been asked by the kind staff at Ric's to DJ again this Sunday arvo (28/8) from 3-6pm.
What were they thinking? Weren't they there last time? Yes
I know these questions and many more are probably going through your
head right now. But, fear not friends, this sunday we will be
bringing the radness! That wasn't meant to sound like a SPOD
reference...but kinda did. Anyway, so we are going to be totally
more rad than Tommo and the rational academy who are DJ-ing on Sat
arvo...because we have Ratcat records (ok maybe just one). No,
but seriously if you are bored on Sat arvo, go and see Tommo and the
rationals DJ at Ric's. If you're bored on Sun arvo come and see
the socially awkward kids of Iron On drink too many beers and dance
behind the console. You may also be fed for free...there was some
seriously free food last time we did this. No promises though...
In other news, our record came back from the pressing plant the other
day. It was cool to see it all put together as a finished product
(btw I mean 'product' as in product of our hard work...not product as
in a 'unit'...I hate when bands talk about their music as being
'products'. Like "well we haven't got any new product"...dude,
it's music!...it's ART...ha ah...ok I'm kidding now.) Anyway, our
record will be out Sept 5th.
The new death cab record is...puzzling. I'd like to make a
prediciton now, so that everyone can know for real how much of a
'mystic cherryl' I really am...not that this is even a big call,
but...Transatlanticism will be the best record death cab ever put
out. It will not be bettered. The new record has shed the
rock, which is fine by me, but seems to have shed something else
too...can't work out what it is yet. Maybe it's the fact that
Gibbard seems happy...well, as "happy" as he could be. And not
that there's anything wrong with that...although there is definately
less urgency about the whole thing. Anyway, I'm sounding like I'm
not liking it...it's still pretty new, but already it has moments that
make me want to pull my eye balls out (in a good way). Ok, now I
am rambling...Although strangely I did think one song sounded like John
Denver (RIP).
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| I'm leaving on a jet plane! |
[Aug. 17th, 2005|12:18 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | bored | ] |
| [ | music |
| | The Cure - The Cure | ] |
Is it just me, or is everyone leaving this wretched town called
Brisbane? A friend of mine Elizabeth is moving to the UK
(indefinately) today, my flatmate and best-bud Felicity is off tomorrow
for six months. She may never return. And Caro (aka
Glamiator) an old-school best-bud is apparently moving to the UK at the
end of the year. Anyone else I have forgotten? Not to sound
melodramatic, but lately it feels like people are either leaving or
'checking out' in a whole fucking variety of ways. Everything
feels kinda transitory at the moment. My first year flatmate Bec
Newham used to say "changes are brewing!" I'd say that lately
this would be an understatement. This is not directly
related...but I think it's strange how tragic events make you reassess
your life in a myriad of ways. I think sometimes it takes
something pretty big to shake things up...especially if they are long
overdue.
In other news Ben (tommo) and I recorded some songs last night with Sir
Lawrence English at the Time Off office. It was really fun
actually. Poor Nick had to sit there all night listening to us do
take after take of our songs. Actually I think he managed to
escape for most of mine. Anyway, thanks coppack, and Sir
Lawrence, I hope it turns out ok.
Time to eat...
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| The Dice Man Part 2 |
[Aug. 8th, 2005|03:47 pm] |
* 'What if your feeling that
all desires are unreliable and all beliefs illusions is right, is the
mature, valid vision of reality, and the rest of men are living under
the illusions which your experience has permitted you to shed?'
* 'Stop trying to create a pattern, a personality; just do whatever you feel like.'
'But I don't feel like doing anything; that's the trouble.'
'That's because you're letting one desire, the desire to believe
strongly and be a clearly defined person, inhibit the rest of your
various desires.'
* 'Christ's message is clear:
you must lose yourself to save yourself. You must give up
personal worldly desires, become poor in spirit. By surrendering
your personal whim to the die you are practicing precisely that
self-abnegation prescribed in the scriptures.'
* 'Do you see...that the only selfless action is one not dictated by the self.'
The Dice Man
By Luke Rhinehart
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| The Dice Man Part 1 |
[Jul. 13th, 2005|06:46 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  curious | ] |
- We formed a deep, irrational,
obviously neurotic need for one another: love - one of society's
many socially accepted forms of madness. We got married:
society's solution to loneliness, lust and laundry.
+ Patterns are prostitution to
the patter of parents. Adults rule and they reward
patterns. Patterns it is. And eventual misery. What
if we were to bring up our children differently? Reward them for
varying their habits, tastes, roles? Reward them for being
inconsistent? What then? We could discipline them to be
reliably various, to be conscientiously inconsistent, determinedly
habit-free - even of 'good' habits.
+ I saw clearly for the first
time that the fear of failure keeps us huddled in the cave of self - a
group of behaviour patterns we have mastered and have no intention of
risking failure by abandoning.
+ From children to men we cage
ourselves in patterns to avoid facing new problems and possible
failure; after a while men become bored because there are no new
problems. Such is life under the fear of failure.
Fail! Lose! Be bad! Play, risk, dare.
Luke Rhinehart - The Dice Man
Thanks Ian...
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 13th, 2005|03:12 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | contemplative | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Sleater Kinney - The Woods | ] |
I always knew my annoying levels of emo-ness weren't entirely my doing...
Your Birthdate: March 6 |
A birthday on the 6th of the month adds a tone of responsibility, helpfulness, and understanding to your natural inclinations.
Those born on the sixth are more apt to be open and honest with everyone, and more caring about family and friends, too.
This is a number associated with responsibility and caring - this birthday lends a degree of concern for others. |
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| Simpsons Miniature Figurines |
[Jul. 12th, 2005|05:11 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | happy | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Idlewild - Warnings/Promises | ] |
Ben and I went to Coles today and discovered that they are selling
Simpsons miniature figurines for two dollars at the check-outs.
Sound lame? Dude, they are AWESOME! I bought Ralph Wiggum. He is eating from a jar labelled 'paste'. It made my day. Ben bought Millhouse.
I told him he looked like Millhouse. Needless to say this didn't
go down too well. Then he told me that I was like Ralph because I
apparently 'eat everything'. Let's recap... I don't eat Kangaroo
meat (yet), olives on toast, sardines w/ tomato sauce IN two minute
noodle soup...or semen.
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| Yes! G from the A! |
[Jun. 28th, 2005|11:03 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  sleepy | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Jedediah B-sides | ] |
| Indie_robbo's LJ stalker is turbot! | | turbot is stalking you because they heard you are awesome in bed, and they want to find out. They are also deluded! |
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| Sorry... |
[May. 3rd, 2005|06:39 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  embarrassed | ] |
| [ | music |
| | background talking QUT | ] |
I'm sorry for posting that last entry three times. That wasn't supposed to happen (obviously!)
Then I deleted them...and actually deleted them all! I didn't even get to read the comment that someone left...sorry whoever you were...please write again...I promise I won't delete you! |
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| Long weekends |
[May. 3rd, 2005|06:35 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  weird | ] |
| [ | music |
| | silence | ] |
I guess I haven't written in this for a while, but I really haven't had that much to say. I guess I've been doing too much actual "living"...if you could call it that...to ever be bothered to write any of it down in this thing. You know what it's like, sometimes when you're in the middle of things, it's really hard to work out what's going on, and even harder to comment on it. It's the whole "can't see the picture while you're inside the frame" scenario. Not that I have been out "living it up"...or "living large" as I would say if I was a rapper...well actually I lie, I have been. I have been a little out of control actually. My life has felt very random, very transitional, very fluid and yet strangely, actually starting to make sense. I realise that actually coming out and saying this may have ruined any future chance of anything making sense, but I'll take the risk...
On Sunday night I went to Brisbane's favourite queer and alternative event, "Black Fag"...for the second week in a row. Actually someone came up to me on sunday, and said that the club should be renamed "White Lesbian"...which I thought was pretty funny considering the company I was in. So anyway, I think I tried once again to drink the world's supply of beer that night...oh dear...how tragic am I? I woke up on Monday at about noon wondering why I hadn't woken up at 9, 10, and 11 with a thumping headache. I thought, hey maybe I was handed one of those infamous "get out of jail free" drinking cards where you somehow manage to avoid a hangover completely, even though you deserve to be lying in a gutter somewhere in a pile of your own vomit. Then I thought, OR, maybe I'm just getting good at this...I remember once that James Straker told me that he no longer got hangovers...I thought yeah, maybe I'm becoming a professional drinker...not that that is ANYTHING to aspire to...but we have to have goals in our life right? Then by about 2pm the horrifying possibility started to dawn on me that I might STILL BE DRUNK! Then I realised that this was the ONLY logical explanation...and as truly putrid as that thought was, I was so happy that I had avoided the hangover and could probably avert it all together by drinking a shit load of water and sugary drinks before I actually started the slide into a hangover later that afternoon. I think I even verbalised to my sister that I had stumbled across the answer to every binge drinkers problems..."just keep drinking, so you're still drunk when you wake up, and hence avoid the hangover". This was my new master plan, and it was in that moment that I realised that not only did I definitely still have alcohol in my system, but that I was also in serious need of help. Not like "AA" help...but maybe just some clarity, and general life reform. I mean seriously, my mum would be so proud reading this...wouldn't you be? |
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| Downstairs "dunnie" demos |
[Apr. 4th, 2005|01:53 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | optimistic | ] |
| [ | music |
| | bright eyes - Lifted | ] |
So my sister dropped off my Dad's Maton acoustic guitar to me over the weekend. He's lending it to me because I'm going to be doing some recording in my downstairs toilet/bathroom. Sounds weird I know, but the acoustics in there are pretty amazing. Sometimes I go down there to write songs because I like the way my voice reverberates around the room and bounces back at me. His guitar has a pick-up too, so I can mic it up and/or plug it in. Whereas my acoustic guitar "Canora"...is the biggest piece of shit ever so I really don't want to use it. Its high 'e' string is so rooted that it sounds like a sitar...yep, so Bollywood, even with new strings on it. The machine heads have been replaced with like $5 ones, and they often lean on an angle when I tighten the strings. Although at the same time I can't quite bring myself to part with it...after all it has been good to me. I've written over 90% of the songs I've ever written on that guitar. I always figured that if a song sounded good on Canora it would have to sound good on a proper guitar...my logic is impeccable I'm sure you agree...
So anyway I borrowed Ian's four-track machine and a couple of mic's and I'm going to...well try to record some songs I guess. Last time I did anything like this the end result was kinda terrible. A couple of years ago I tried to record some demos for iron on with a four track and an electric guitar. I think it was recorded the day before I went overseas and I had a cold. I heard the tape for the first time in a long time the other day, and it sounded really bad...awful infact. The purpose of this recording is not really to demo iron on songs acousticly, but to record a heap of other songs, some of which have been around for a couple of years and some a couple of weeks/months. Some are polished, and some are still unfinished. They're basically songs that I didn't think would fit in with the whole iron on rock machine. Who knows, maybe when we're making our fourth ablum we'll be all experimental-acoustic-funk or something, and I can drag some of these songs out. I am kidding, funk is a four letter word for a reason.
So yeah, I'm kinda looking forward to it. I have over twenty songs I want to record, so I'm not sure how long it's going to take me, or whether it will all fit on a 90min tape, but I guess I'm about to find out. I really just want a "record" of these songs so that I remember that they did exist. I mean how many songs can a person keep in their head and pull out on cue? I'm sure I've forgotten a heap of songs I've written. But no longer. Although, to be honest, some are better forgotten...right? |
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