Sunday, July 30, 2006

would you like cracked pepper with that?

Just thought I'd write a post in between shifts. What a difference a week makes - last sunday I didn't finish at work until five pm, we were absolutely packed. This week was more your average week and it was pretty chilled out from about two onwards. I think I prefer regular sundays. So I'm sitting here with my bowl of penne verdure (penne with vegetables) before I go back to work. Not working in the kitchen at all this weekend, which is strange. We're short on floor staff so I'm out there again, mainly doing bar work. Surprisingly it all came back pretty quickly. I'm churning out those coffee orders just as fast as I used to.

And now that I'm on I can't think of anything to write about. Typical. I wish I could somehow electronically record my thoughts while I'm working. I'd come up with some pretty interesting posts then. Hmmm...Oh I'm going to buy the new Apple MacBook. I'm quite excited. There's a few questions I have to find answers to, like whether my iPod will work with a mac after being used with a PC and whether I can use our house's wireless broadband with a mac (can you tell I don't know much about computers?) but I'm pretty much decided. It's surprisingly cheap too, $1550 with the student discount. I can't wait to have a functioning laptop again. My trusty Acer Travelmate finally died this year when we networked it, it couldn't really handle all this new stuff.

I'm kind of tired too...I blame a certain someone for keeping me on msn about an hour longer than I intended.

-R

Saturday, July 29, 2006

Here We Are At The Transmission Party

One year ago today, Georgina introduced me to Franz Ferdinand (literally). It still stands out as one of the best days of my life. So I thought to celebrate a year I'd relive some of the fantasticness of that day.

On the set
Pyro!
Mannequins
George, Alex Kapranos, I
George, Nick McCarthy, I
Paul, I, Fake Baby
(Oh and Paul and his wife Esther very recently became parents for the first time. Congratulations :))
I, Bob Hardy, George

*sigh* what fun times we had.

Thursday, July 27, 2006

He won't deceive you, or tell you the truth

It is with much trepidation that I present to you my first recording. With apologies to Neil Finn, here is my version of Not The Girl You Think You Are. I had to change the vocal line which was too low for me, and am really unhappy with how it starts, but I haven't managed to find another starting note. Also the sound quality is shite because I don't have any proper recording equipment (which also means I did it all live - no recording piano and voice separately for me!).

Not The Girl You Think You Are

-R

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

A look of afar, A secret smile

I bought Second Thoughts today and have listened to it once so far and absolutely ADORE it. The songs on this that are the same as Mental Notes (Walking Down A Road, Titus, Stranger Than Fiction, Time For A Change) are different versions, and for the most part they're better. This version of Titus absolutely kicks the Mental Notes version's ass. The solo is now trumpet instead of guitar I think and it sounds much better. It's also a much richer sweeping sound in general, living up to its full grand potential. The remaster sounds excellent, I just had a huge grin on my face while listening to Lovey Dovey as it sounds so damn good now, even through my shitty mono computer speaker. I'll take it downstairs for a listen some time. Ohhhh and I nearly forgot, the last song, Woman Who Loves You comes complete with a Noel Crombie spoon solo! When I recognised the song I was like 'ohhhh pleeeeeaaase have the spoon solo' (I have it live ont he DVD) and when it came on I jumped out my chair and did a little cheer :D It's fucking legendary. I was going to get Second Thoughts and Dizrythmia this week as I worked quite long hours on the weekend and got good tips, but there was a Beatles T-shirt on sale for $10 so I got that instead. It's white, with the 'HELP' semaphore logo in black across it. It made me laugh. I just realised I think it's my first band t-shirt too. Not bad then! I'm wearing it tonight to trivia.

Hmm I seem to have lost my paragraphing ability. In a bit of a hurry cos Brendan's gonna pick me up soon.

-R

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Winter Lovin, that's the best kind of lovin

Well, I'm not too sure about that, Mr Freedman. It's been bloody cold, even for someone like me who claims to enjoy cold weather more. Well, it was bloody freezing this morning at any rate. My sister had rowing at 6 am at the yarra (if it's not swimming it's rowing - when will she learn to choose a sport that's conducted at a civil hour!?) and I stupidly offered take mum to breakfast this morning. So at the highly improbably hour of 6am I found myself sitting in a freeeezing cold cafe at the Queen Vic Markets. I've never seen that place so empty. It was about 5 degrees this morning. Unbelievable. I was wearing a ridiculous amount of clothing and it didn't do all that much actually.

So I'm being a bit lazy tonight - so tired after being up so early. I was meant to go to a Something for Kate secret gig at the Evelyn (well it's not a secret now but it's on now, so it's not like I'm ruining it for anyone) but it's so cold and I'm so tired and I don't like them enough to bundle up and head out again. I only know a few of their singles anyway, so this prevents me from feeling guilty about passing up such an opportunity. Trust me if it were a secret gig for Jebediah or something I'd be the first one there.

So anyway there has been new music this week, which will become a weekly thing. There's the Split Enz re-masters to buy so I'm buying one a week in chronological order (apart from True Colours, which I bought first because it was really cheap). This week I bought the first album, Mental Notes, recorded in 1975.

I don't have a lot of un-remastered tracks to compare to the remasters, as my only other Split Enz album is a best of, but from what I do have off Mental Notes (Titus and Time For A Change)the sound quality is markedly different. At first I thought Eddie Rayner (Enz keyboardist and now producer) would just tweak the mix, but he's gone back and used different takes, and the result is very impressive. In terms of sound quality it's superbly clear, like the tracks were recorded yesterday, and the tracks now probably sound more like how the band wanted them to sound like in the first place. The first track, Walking Down A Road (and one of my favourites from the album) really shows off the superior sound quality, the drums and bass really clear and popping out. There's also two bonus live tracks on the end of the album, 129 (Matinee Idyll) and Lovey Dovey, which is my favourite Split Enz song at the moment, with a quirky little chorus and Eddie's *fantastic* piano, especially the bridge. In the live version the band calls out 'Come on Eddie, if you please, play that bridge on the ivories'. I cracked up when I heard that. Eddie is a seriously talented keyboardist/pianist and his use of synthesizers to add colour to the songs was really something too (I could write a whole lot more about this album and the band members' individual instrumental virtuosity but let's leave it at one lengthy pragraph).

I also bought 'She Will Have Her Way - The Songs of Tim and Neil Finn', which is a bunch of Aussie and New Zealand singer-songwriters covering Finn songs. It's kind of a mixed package with some good covers and some...well, crap ones. I personally believe if you're going to cover a song then you should give it your own flavour. Therefore Natalie Imbruglia's cover of Pineapple Head pisses me off because it sounds *exactly* the same as the original, but with a chick singing. I'm also not a huge fan of Renee Geyer's Into Temptation because it was a really cheesy sounding electronic drumbeat. Surpisingly I actually kinda like Kasey Chamber's Better Be Home Soon, very simple arrangement with just acoustic guitar and violin. And her backing vocalist sounds EXACTLY like Neil Finn (although the liner notes say it's someone else). My favourite cover on the album however is Sophie Koh's rousing version of Charley, a classic Split Enz song. The original is an almost mournful, heart-wrenching ballad but Sophie and Co (not pun intended) have upped the tempo to a stomping, feel-good indie pop gem that the disaffected 'yoof' in me loves. That's my idea of a cover right there.

My sister borrowed the new Muse album, Black Holes and Revelations, from a friend today but I haven't listened to all of it yet, so a review on that next time. I like Muse but haven't really taken the time to hear all their stuff. My siblings adore them, so it looks like we're all going to the Big Day Out to see them next year. I have to say I really dig Supermassive Black Hole. It's so damn funky and so unlike their other stuff. So stay posted for that one.

Anyway an early night for me. I have to be at my sister's school tomorrow at 9am to accompany her on Missy Higgin's Nightminds. Geez, am I her slave much? Haha. She'd better sing it well.

-R

PS I'm really excited about buying the second Enz album, Second Thoughts, next week, even though it is kinda like Mental Notes Mach II as there are a few duplicated tracks. But it has Matinee Idyll, Sweet Dreams, Lovey Dovey and Late Last Night, which I all *love* and can't wait to hear the remastered versions of. So expect a lengthy review about that one!

Monday, July 17, 2006

A three hour blink, and I'm back in the game.

Hmmm. Last post was my 100th post to this blog and I didnt' even realise. I was going to do something big for the 100th but these things tend to not get noticed at whatever ungodly hour I was typing.

I managed to break my record for least amount of sleep on a working weekend (Saturday night, Sunday double). I think I slept a little less than three hours. Surprisingly I felt okay yesterday, I just started to get a little sleepy towards the end of the dinner shift (where thankfully I was back in the kitchen, in my element). It was a quiet shift and standing around twiddling your thumbs can lead to drowsiness. But a good thorough cleanup changed all that. Ten minutes scrubbing the oven doors clean and I was back to normal (and those oven doors have never looked so good).

The fed square thing turned out to be a huge waste of my time that could've been better spent sleeping, but at least I got to catch up with Den and finally see his apartment so it wasn't a total loss. It was a Video Hits thing so you can imagine the type of people that turned up (let's just say that at nearly 20, I felt rather old). It was bloody cold too. Shit happens though. At least it didn't rain.

Anyway I'd better go do housework before my parents return from Fiji (Ohsnap!) tonight. I think I'm going for coffee with George :) And probably some form of mischeif in the city.

-R

Saturday, July 15, 2006

I'll never learn

I'm at Den's place in the city. We're going down to fed square in about...four hours for a free gig of Something For Kate, Wolfmother and Augie March. It's four AM. I'm working a double tomorrow. Today.

Whatever happened to me never doing satuday night again? I'm not out I suppose. We've just been chatting and catching up for the past couple of hours. George and I didn't get here until 1 anyway.

Anyway I think we're going to try nd get some sleep before heading out to find food. We're all kinda starving but it's too bloody cold to try and head into the city right now.

Four AM! What the fuck is wrong with me.

-R

Thursday, July 13, 2006

Holiday snaps

I've been so used to not using the computer while on holiday that I've only bothered to get on today. I got back on monday so it's been sitting here within my reach but unused for three days. It's been nice not going on the computer actually.

I still have my cold but I'm slowly getting better. I'm hoping to be feeling better tomorrow night because work put me on the floor this weekend. I'm kinda shitting myself because I've forgotten how to waitress. Maybe I can just do bar stuff but I doubt it. The menu's changed too so I have no idea what's for eating.

Last night I was watching Max (a music channel on cable) and they had a half hour of clips from their 'sessions' where they get musicians to perform a 'live and intimate' set in front of a small audience. I stuck a tape in to record it, luckily, and got an amazing version of KD Lang singing Hallelujah. The last song was 'Won't Give In' by the Finn Brothers, then I was going to hit the stop button, but before I could, Do You Want To by Franz came on, which was cool, then the next one was It's Only Natural by Crowded House. Two of my favourite bands. What are the odds? It's kind of strange watching DYWT now, it actually takes me a while to remember that I was there.

Anyway yes, I have some holiday snaps to put up. I should get a photobucket because Flickr sucks when it comes to organizing photos, but I can't be bothered.
At Seaworld
Ice Cream
Superman Escapes
Lethal Weapon Ride

Obviously there are more but I can't be stuffed resizing all of them, then uploading them, then linking. I might break it up into parts or something.

-R

Sunday, July 02, 2006

I can't think of a title. I'm on holiday.

So here is an unexpected update. Trust my workaholic dad to bring his wireless enabled laptop on holiday. Actually he's not really on holiday. He goes into work during the week. Last week he was in Mt Isa, which is further away than I thought. Apparently it's the same distance away from Brisbane as Melbourne is, but in the opposite direction.

Anyway the Gold Coast's been very nice this week. It's not exactly hot, but it's pleasant enough during the day. The sun's been shining all last week, but we're getting showers this week, so tomorrow we're going to Wet and Wild for the last bit of sunshine (can't believe I'll be running around in my bathers in the middle of winter). It's been pretty restful, which is always nice on a holiday. I've got a bit of a sore throat but otherwise my cold is pretty much gone. The only danger is that it's been ricocheting around my family so as soon as someone is better they catch it straightaway again.

Other than that, nothing fantastically interesting to report. I'll be back in Melbourne in a week and I'm looking forward to getting home and my own bed again (at the moment I'm sharing a sofa bed with my sister) but I'm enjoying myself here too.

Oh and it's exactly one year since george and I went to the US. Sigh. Good times, good times. The year's gone so fast!

-R