Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Holy Shit Steve Jobs.

When I bought my MacBook in mid 2006, I thought nothing could possibly surpass it in terms of looks and build. It's slick, it's clean, it's white, it's slim, it's terribly modern and sophisticated.

And then Apple go and release the MacBook Air. It's slimmer, it's slicker, it's cleaner, it's made of freaking aluminium. The trackpad has been upgraded so you can use the gestures you use on the iPhone (which I had the pleasure of playing with the other day) - pinch, flick, rotate and all that jazz. Instead of having an onboard optical drive which is sooo last year, you can wirelessly access the optical drive of another computer if you simply must use it. And it has a backlit keyboard, a la the MacBook Pro. And it comes with an 80GB hard drive, with 64GB flash storage as an upgrade.

Fuck you, Apple, for making me love my MacBook less.

-R

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

It's been a while

So, I've been quite slack with this blog. I'm going through an extra long period of can't be arsed bloggingness. It's not like nothing's happening in my life right now, it's neither more or less exciting than it usually is when I'm blogging. I think the thing is that there are so many ways to connect with people now, there's almost no need for the blog. If I go to a big event, I'll put the photos on flickr or (increasingly) facebook and post a few comments, which other people will then comment on, so there's my connection there. I blame facebook entirely, actually.

Anyway quite a few things have happened since I last blogged. I went and bought my Maton and she is indeed a beautiful instrument which I play all the time. I think, despite my penchant for dark clothing, eyeliner, power chords and dancing like a maniac, I'm an acoustic girl at heart. There's something pure about being able to pick up a guitar and not having to plug it in. You don't even need a pick sometimes. If all the world's power sources failed tomorrow and we were cast back into the stone ages, I could still pick up my acoustic and play it by a fire. At least until I ran out of strings. Acoustic guitars are so alive too. They have a soul, not like electrics which are gorgeous and cool but I don't think they've got a soul under all that nitrocellulose or whatever the hell it is they finish those things with. I'm so losing my rockstar membership over this. Don't get me wrong, I love electrics and their cool effects and myriad of sounds, but if I had to choose to play only one type for the rest of my life, acoustic would be it. Hey, I could be like Tim Finn. He plays acoustics and dances like a maniac.

Speaking of all things Finn. Crowded House played Melbourne at the beginning of November. I was very lucky to get into the soundcheck (being a life member of the fan club does have its privileges). There were probably about 15 of us freezing our butts off in Rod Laver Arena (I guess having 10,000 people in there would make is quite warm so they made it extra cold to compensate), what a strange experience having the band up onstage in front of us. Neil asked if we had any requests so we got an excellent rendition of Whispers and Moans, and then someone asked for Everything Is Good For You. They hadn't played it since reforming but gave it a good try. It was fun watching them standing around onstage trying to remember their songs. We were also told that Split Enz are touring NZ next March but not to tell anyone as the press release was only going out that night. I spent the rest of the afternoon hanging around with some of the people from soundcheck. There's a good burger shop on Swan St just past the Corner, I had an excellent hamburger with tomato and lettuce for $3.50. The show itself was of course wonderful, our seats were right up the back (literally, we only had two rows of seats behind us) but they had big video screens up so we could still see the action. It was quite a long set, they played for just on two hours. Seated crowds are very sedate, everyone got up to dance at the end though and Kat and I had a blast dancing and singing (in harmony no less) together. After the gig I went 'stalking' with some Frenz (fellow fanclub members). Janine had unexpectedly come down from Sydney so it was great to see her and Reanne and a few people I hadn't met before. Even without meeting any members of Crowded House it was quite enjoyable just hanging out and talking (Neil's excuse for not stopping the first night was that he thought we were just hanging out. Yes, we love to stand under bridges late at night talking). None of the Taragos stopped so we got ready to leave, but before we could Mark Hart came back and jumped out to sign things etc. He's a great guy and very friendly.

After the brilliance that was the first night I was quite eager to try and go to the second. However when I called work on friday morning I found out that I had been rostered on and no one had told me. To say I was disappointed was something of an understatement. Still, Janine and I went out for coffee at Elwood and I figured I could meet up with everyone after my shift so the day wasn't a total loss. When I got into work though my powers of persuasion took over and I suddenly found myself with the night off. We managed to get last minute tickets and my day went from sucky to quite bloody awesome. We ended up sitting near the right side of the stage, for a gig that was even better than the first. Neil Finn even stopped to sign things this night and I got my program signed by him, although I was far too awestruck to really say anything.

..Anyway this post is a couple of months old by now, it's been in draft mode and I kind of forgot about it. Christmas and New Years were great as usual, and I'm about to go to the gym with my little sister who just joined on monday. We're going to bully each other back into shape after putting on a few pounds over the holidays. I promise to blog a bit more from now on. Maybe.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

The Doctor

I said I would blog about this last night, and it has admittedly been a while since I wrote a blog, so here's me being geeky as usual and blogging about some geeky thing that happened to me.

Last night we were at the pub, well Stef, Steve, Brendan and I were, doing our usual tuesday night trivia thing, and sitting at the next table was THE DOCTOR. As in, Doctor Who (although those who watch it will know that his name isn't actually Doctor Who, it's just The Doctor). Some guy who looked and acted amazingly like David Tennant (aka the tenth Doctor) had taken it upon himself to dress like him too. Navy blue single breasted pinstripe suit and red hi tops...I'm *pretty* sure it wasn't a coincidence, although if it was, damn that was a funny coincidence. I didn't have the guts to go up and say something but if I did I would have run up to say 'what, back from Raxicoricophalapotorius already?'.

Oh and has anyone else heard the rumour about a Doctor Who movie!?!!?!! Apparently Rose might come back for it...which I would so love, The Doctor/Rose was the best pairing EVAR. I still haven't seen much of this series with Martha, I've missed most of the middle of it, although I did see Blink and the last three episodes with the Master (although maybe I should've waited, because I didn't get most of the storyline about Professor Yana etc.). And I'm really interested to see this new series with Catherine Tate as the companion...what was her character's name again, Donna? Should be very interesting/funny. Would be wonderful if the ABC would screen it at the same time as the BBC starting with the Christmas Special but I somehow doubt it...

-R

Friday, October 05, 2007

baching it up

Byron and I are by ourselves in the house until the 15th of October as our parents and Kathryn are in China. Unfortunately there will be no wild parties, because we both work weekends, and we're the kind of people who like nothing better than a quiet night in, with a nice dinner and an early turn-in. However last night we had a fun night, had Brendan, Steve, Alana and Pat over for dinner, we did a roast pork and trimmings thing, it turned out pretty well for two people who can't really cook all that well. Also I was in bed by midnight, I like that. I'm still up tonight because I'm waiting for my hair to dry, but I'm this close to going to bed anyway. I worked tonight and I'm working tomorrow, so I need some sleep. I have hot tea to hopefully keep me awake a bit longer though. And a giant freddo, although I might save that for a real emergency.

Tonight I used Skype for the second time ever. I have a good friend/fren Julie, who lives in Texas, USA. She and I have been chatting on msn for more than a year. At first it was your standard tragic fan fare, what's your favourite album, what do you thinkt he lyrics here mean, that sort of thing, which is really interesting to discuss, but there's only so many times you can dissect a song. She and I chat a few times a week and now pretty much just talk about anything. Anyway, she mentioned recently that despite the fact that we've been chatting for more than a year, we don't know what the other person sounds like, so tonight I called her on Skype as a surprise. She answered the phone with 'ma? Is that you?' and I thought 'shit, I have the wrong number,' but it was 7:30am her time, and there's not many people who call at that hour. She has a higher voice than I expected, and apparently I have a lower voice than she expected, but it was great to finally hear each other.

anyway I'm really tired, and hardly know what I'm typing right now. I'm goign to finish my ta and go to bed.

-R

Monday, September 10, 2007

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

The birds were singing and the sun was shining

Wow, wtf is up with the weather recently. Yesterday was crazy warm. My room's messy again because I had to go hunting through the darkest crevices of my wardrobe to find some summer shorts, and I had to shave my legs...I was hoping to get away without deforestation for at least another two months. Lucky I have a new razor which vibrates. I'm not sure how beneficial to the shaving process the vibrating actually is, but whatever.

Anyway, John Butler Trio were absolutely brilliant, although to be honest I expected nothing less. They're three extremely talented musicians. I would love to have a quarter of John's ability on guitar. One of his guitars had this huge scratched area just behind the bridge, and I couldn't work out what the hell did it as it was nowhere near where he strummed, then he played a solo song where he strummed and then hit the guitar in that area with his nails to create a really nice percussive sound. Michael Barker's drumming was amazing, he was playing kit, jambe/bongo type things, timpanis, glockenspiel and one song he was playing kit with his right arm and legs, and using his left hand to hold the mic while he beatboxed a beat over the top. Now that is cool. Mark of a good drummer is when their solo still has a beat and groove you can dance to instead of being a boring rapid succession of bangs and crashes.

Also I have a video up on youtube, I covered a song by The Waifs called Bridal Train. I heard it the first time that morning, learnt it and performed it, which is probably why it's a bit dodge. I bet I got the melody wrong in places, but hey it's all character innit.


-R

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Quick update

Just a quick one...don't really feel like blogging but I guess I have the time right this second so I may as well.

George's birthday drinks was on Saturday....I had an awesome time, from what I can remember. Probably drank far too much and woke up on Sunday with a raging hangover and had to work that afternoon, but it was worth it. There are photos on Facebook (speaking of which, hi Adri...) and I'll probably put em up on Flickr at some point too.

We've now recorded our song that we're entering into the Darebin songwriting contest. I think it's quite good, I hope the judges agree. If we get into the semis we'll have to perform it along with all the other entrants, which makes me quite nervous. Unfortunately I won't have my Maton till well after the competition, so I think I'll play Alana's. Playing so much acoustic over the past couple of weeks has completely screwed my neck and shoulders...can't wait for my guitar!

I'm seeing John Butler Trio tonight, with Steve. We were a bit nervous about the gig being postponed, Canberra's was postponed because their drummer (who is the possibly my favourite drummer, he's awesome) got sick. I'm pretty excited about it, we got the green tickets, fifty extra cents buys carbon credits to offset emissions from the tour and us getting there. Figured it's John Butler, we may as well go in hippy mode. It would be cool for more gigs to offer it actually, I'd definitely take the green option. We've been good little greenies at home, cut our water usage in half the past year, and probably made quite a dent in our energy usage too. I think we're getting the house kitted out with a new type of low energy consuming light near the end of the year, someone we know is developing it nd I think we're guinea pigs, should be quite interesting.

Anyway I better get ready to go...I'm being green/lazy and walking to the station to take public transport to the gig. Steve's taking me home in the 'Gizmobile' as he affectionately calls it (although when I first read it I thought 'Jizzmobile - Steve, that's disgusting.' Me and my dirty mind!).

-R

PS I could've *sworn* it's the 24th.