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!

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

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

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.





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

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

Sleep when you're dead, or something.

I should never go out on Satuday nights. I know that now. But I had to last night! Marika's friend Nick is down from England (he's a champ), and at lunch yesterday we decided we would take Nick on a bar hop after Stef and I finished work. I've never been out in the city on a saturday night before, it was really cool. Marika, Nick, Stef, Brendan and I headed out about midnightish. Went to Robot first and luckily a group was just leaving so we got a spot to sit down. Funnily enough every single time I've been to Robot (and I've beena few times), I've always sat in exactly the same area. Two girls that I know were sitting close by, but there were so many people milling around that I didn't get to say hi.

After a drink (and some freaky guy coming up to me and offering me cigarettes/lung cancer - he was just strange) we headed to Gin Palace, which is my favourite bar out of the few I've visited. Again we were lucky, there was a little spot with a couch and some armchairs free around a couple of tables, so we settled in. I had peach schnapps and lemonade for the first time. It was very good.

We stayed there until closing at 3, then headed out to find food...wandered around a bit in the freezing wheather...took photos at a blakc and white photo booth at flinders st...(sorry for the vague posting, I have to go eat dinner and go back to work real soon)

anyway it was a great night, and I got home just before 5, so got about 5 hours sleep before work today. I was hoping for a quiet day, but no such luck. Front of house were one short so when Iw asn't washing dishes I was out at the bar doing their glasses. I even got sent out with food at one point, and had to revert back to waitress mode for a few minutes. Seeing as I'd had a very bad night's sleep and I have a cold, I think I did okay.

anyway I'm off to eat and then work (yay). I'm going to Queensland for two weeks tomorrow and I won't be going out of my way to find a computer, so there might not be a blog for a while.

-R

It's hip to be detached and precious

Haha I should stop underestimating the Socceroos. Well done lads. Although they're playing against Italy yet...even the more optimistic fans can't fail to see the likelihood of them losing there...But it's good to have them in the second round.

Yay for holidays! It's nice, doing whatever you feel like, no plans. Let's wander aimlessly around and just drink in the view because we don't have to be anywhere.

Oh shit! I was going to write a fairly hefty entry but I just realised I haven't packed yet. Haha go me. Hopefully I will be able to write another entry before I leave for Queensland.

-R

La di da da

I'm listening right now to this Bob Evans song called 'Rocks In My Head'. I LOVE the chord progression in it. It's G Bm Bbm Am C. There's something about that - that semitone drop from B to Bb then A, that just makes me so happy. I've played chord progressions like that on piano, in old jazz songs and such. I think there's a little three-quaver progression in 'Try A Little Tenderness'. Every time I play it, I think to myself 'Damn, that is a GREAT chord progression'.

Haha. I'm such a nerd. I was actually pretty proud of myself because I figured out the chords from watching Bob play at the instore - I can recognise a few chords now! hooray. Still can't play bar chords though. Le sigh. I just need stronger fingers. Acoustic guitar looks comically large on me too, like the bass guitar. My sister's decided she wants to learn bass, so I've decided I'd better learn guitar. And I've also decided, hard decision it was too, that instead of travelling I'm going to buy myself an electric guitar and laptop. I'll still learn bass though. The guitar will just be to jam with my family. I think it'd be awesome to play with Kathryn. She knows nothing about guitars but she has an ear for music. Today I was singing along to a Crowded House song that she'd never heard, and she came in perfectly with the harmony. Once her voice has matured a bit she will be a force to be reckoned with.

I went to the ballet last night, it was 'Giselle'. It's tragic and I wish I hadn't worn mascara because it was hard to not cry at the end of both acts. I'm a sucker, I always cry when you're meant to, those horribly emotionally manipulative moments with the strings soaring away and all the drama swirling. Pass the Kleenex please.

-R

PS Australia lost! I'm not surprised. They've got no hope against Croatia. Ah well.

I went out to see if I could fall in love again - that was my mistake

I haven't blogged for a while. I know. I haven't even bothered looking at my blog to see if there are comments telling me to get my lazy arse into gear. So here is a new one. And it may be a long one, just because I haven't blogged for a while.

First point of business: I saw Split Enz on monday night (hence the lyrical title). Evermore were the support act, and were pretty darn good. The only song of theirs I knew was 'It's Too Late', but I'm a fan now. My dad joked about booing the support act off - so he hasn't entirely lost his rock and roll roots! But anyway, onto the headliners.

Geez. Awesome doesn't even come close to describing it.

I'm not going to try and gush about how fan-fucking-tastic they were; It'd take me all week. I feel incredibly priveleged to have seen them perform (especially considering that they disbanded 2 years before I was born). It is telling of their collective songwriting talent, especially that of the Brothers Finn, that the songs still sound so fresh and exciting today. It was everything we could've hoped for and more. They came onstage under a shiny silver blanket, revealing typically strange suits (although sadly nothing on Eddie Rayner's red one-shouldered number) and a number of surreal backdrops. It was a long gig, something like 25 or 26 songs over two hours. Neil Finn pulled out Titus and really put Eddie on the spot for the keys solo, which he performed admirably for someone who hadn't played it in years. 'We'll have it down by Perth'. Tim Finn still dances like a maniac, arms and legs everywhere. Eddie and Neil had a frisbee throwing contest, which Neil won convincingly with a throw that soared over the court area of Rod Laver Arena and into the stands on the other side. Noel Crombie showed everyone how it's done with the spoons (and I've decided that's my next instrument). Of course Six Months In A Leaky Boat got the biggest cheer, but my personal favourite was the beautiful Message To My Girl. Strangely, or perhaps not very strangely, I wasn't on my own in the Generation Y stakes. The majority of the crowd were baby boomers but not by much. There were heaps of young adults and kids with their parents (like me), and groups of young 'uns there by themselves, testament to the legacy of Split Enz and perhaps also the Finn brothers.

Second point of business: On tuesday Brendan and I went to JB HiFi to see Bob Evans (AKA Kevin Mitchell from Jebediah) do an instore. Brendan learnt to never let me loose in a record store as I immediately snapped up a copy of the Crowded House promo vids DVD (well it was $11!) as well as the second Bob Evans album, Suburban Songbook. I really like his stuff, which is surprising as you can definitely hear some country influences in his simple acoustic guitar pop, and country's usually lower on my list of preferred music. Maybe part of the reason I like him so much is because he's Kev from the Jebs, and therefore was my reason for existing from the ages of 14-18. Nice bloke too.

Brendan decided he would hide at the back. Because that doesn't make him look strange at all...

Guitar's coming along surprisingly well, both bass and acoustic. I can actually do chord changes (albeit with simple chords like G, A and D major) now, rather than stopping for 5 hours to put my fingers down in the right place. I still can't play a bar chord to save myself, but a few weeks ago I couldn't change chords to save myself, so hopefully that'll come too. I'm wearing deep grooves into my fingertips, or at least that's where the skin hasn't come off yet. Bass is happening slowly too. I just discovered today that I can actually play off a real score when I found the bass part from 'It's Only A Paper Moon' (probably from my sister's short-lived stint as keyboard bassist in the school's stage band). Piano of course is going how it always is. I've got a song that I could probably record and upload any day now but I can't find the damn mp3 player that records things.

Actually that reminds me of something I was thinking when I was watching Tim and Neil Finn jumping around onstage together and bantering on Monday night (at one point Eddie and Neil were pretending to argue and Tim was breaking them up - 'look at everyone else, can't you at least act professional for just one night?!' lol) and wondering what it would be like to be in a band with one of my siblings. Either one of them could feasibly do it. Byron's very fucking coordinated and is good at pretty much anything he lays his hands on, but Kathryn's got the rockstar persona, man! She's 14 and probably more streetwise than I am. Not bad on a piano either, nice little voice and that...now if only we could somehow steal the Finn's songwriting ability, then we could make a go of this.

We were arseing around the living room tonight, walking using the same arm and leg, then tryign to skip, then running (which is really hard) then doing 'jazz runs' and basically cracking each other up. It was quite silly but I haven't laughed like that since God knows how long.

Shit, my wrists hurt. Too much guitar! I'm going into the city tomorrow. I might go have squiz at that bloke who's trying to set a world record for the world's longest DJ set, 100 hours or something. Be interesting to see if he makes it.

-R

(how's that for a post, suckers)

I (think I) can die happy.

OH MY FUCKING GOD.

I'm so glad I decided to go online tonight, despite the late hour.I went on the Franz Fan Forum as usual and in the Australian thread they were talking about some webchat with Franz. At first I thought I'd missed it but and was kinda pissed that I'd decided to watch the last ever Blue Heelers even though I haven't watched it for years and didn't recognise anyone. But then I read further and realised it was starting in half an hour! So being the dutiful friend I am I jumped on MSN and luckily George was on so I alerted her (and she's posting a blog about this too).

So anyway we both logged into this chat thing, and we waited for Franz to come on. It turns out only Nick came on because apparently the rest of the band was watching Kaiser Chiefs. The chat was moderated so only certain people could post things and at first both George and I weren't 'voiced' as it were, so we kinda sat there growing incredibly impatient with waiting.

George was voiced first and she asked some questions about them meeting Bowie and other Bowie-related queries (surprise, surprise!). She's blogging about this too so I'll let her tell you her side of the story.

So anyway I finally got voiced without even realising it and posted my question more than once by mistake (which made me feel like a complete fool). My exact question was:'Hey guys! Hi Nick, I was just wondering if you remember me. You kissed me ont he cheek during your Melbourne gig this year. It was the most rock and roll moment of my life. Thank you. (I'm the other aussie girl who was at the DYWT shoot in NYc last year - it was incredible!)'. Someone pointed out that I'd posted my question a few times. Whoops.

BUT.

Nick replied to my question! I honestly thought he wouldn't. This is what he said:


*dies* Omigod. Omigodomigodomigod. Excuse me while I go completely fangirly. I'm sure you understand.

The rest of the chat was fun too. George and I nearly wet ourselves with excitement when he replied to her saying that he loves Oscar Wilde. Apparently his grave is covered in kisses. (what is it with Nick and kisses? Not that I'm complaining of course!)

So there it is. A very pleasant sunday night surprise for me. I honestly was not expecting to be chatting to my number one highly unrealistic crush and receiving a virtual kiss from him when I logged on tonight.

Needless to say, I'm very fucking happy tonight. VERY fucking happy.

-R

I'm feeling so uninspired. I've been sitting here in front of the screen for five minutes now, trying to think of a subject for this post, because it's boring when I just tell you what's happening with me, and it also means I have nothing to tell Brendan when I see him because he's read it all here.

Right, I'm going to talk about trends, fads and that kind of thing. Why do people follow them? It's something I'm actually quite curious about. What in our head makes us actually really like the look of a trend (let's say, flared jeans) only to really think it's ugly a few years later? The jeans themselves haven't changed in appearance but our perception of them has. Would we still find them cool if it weren't for advertising cramming the next big trend down our throats?

I have to admit I have found this happening a lot with myself. Take skinny jeans for example. I used to think they were absolutely horrible and swore I'd never ever wear them, let alone own a pair. Yet a couple of months ago I went out and bought a pair of black skinny jeans from Sportsgirl and I love them. I don't know how I came to like them. Maybe because I saw people I actually admire wearing them - mainly musicians. Maybe I am more influenced by advertising and popular culture than I'd care to admit.

However on other trends I've gone backwards - like my view on suntans. I used to always want to be a toasty golden brown just like in the magazines, and I suppose I'm lukcy in that I tan quite easily so I generally was pretty tanned, but recently I've done a backflip and now I actually find pale skin much more attractive.

So what's your take on trends and how you follow them? Do you find yourself following them after disliking them at first like me, or are you completely immune to advertising?

-R

(hey, for an uninspired girl I reckon I did ok! Even if it did take me half an hour to write!)

Ohh about fucking time

I've just waited for this page to load for 10 minutes, no exaggeration. I'm on broadband. There is clearly something wrong with this stupid piece of shite AKA the computer. I might defrag it after this.

Anyhooo. I just (or not really just now, recently) re-read my Whitlams review. You can tell I wrote that one in a hurry eh! Changing from present to past tense, clumsy sentences...eurgh. I actually groaned out loud. And to think I sent submitted it to a webzine! I'm ashamed.

I went to the Pisarro exhibition on Wednesday. It was good. I was interested to see how his style changed, especially his experimenting with the neo-impressionistic stlye at the end. Oh who am I fooling with this arty jargon? I enjoyed it, end of story. I like the magic in painting - up close it's just a thick disc of pale yellow paint, but step back and it becomes a luminous sun, it looks like it's actually giving off light, you know? That kind of magic.

Dad got a new guitar! So fucking excited. He got a lovely sexy beautiful Martin & Co. DC-15E Cutaway acoustic dreadnought with pickups, and a Fender Junior DSP amp. The guitar sounds AMAZING. Really rich and warm in the lower registers epsecially. Great action too - I can actually play a G major chord on it! Yay! Unusual colour, quite dark, I think it's rosewood but I'm not sure. It's matte too, no varnish. I'm learning 'that Everybody song by REM' as Alex Kapranos so eloquently sings it, because it's the easiest piece on the fingerstyles DVD that dad bought. I'm finding it difficult though, playing such a large guitar is challenging, as well as the chords. Plus the steel strings really cut your fingers up. I can only play 15 minutes at a stretch for now but hopefully I'll build up.

Oh yeah and I dyed my hair really intense black. It's pretty cool. My sister says I have Aeon Flux hair. As long as I don't have emo hair that's cool.

So that's me up to date. I'm going to sleep now - going to the gym with my mum tomorrow, then finally picking up my new red silk 50s style dress. I got paid tonight, hooray. I might post photos of the dress some time. Hopefully the computer won't be so fucked next time.

-R

The Whitlams gig review

THE WHTILAMS
Corner Hotel
13 May 2006

The Whitlams are out to promote their newest album, the two-disc Little Cloud, and the Corner is packed with eager punters. The support acts, The Live Room and Kate Miller Heidke, are warmly received. I can take or leave The Live Room's po-rock acoustic guitar and violin, but Kate is the surprise of the night. Admittedly I was not expecting very much, having only heard one of the quiter songs on Tripl J, but she blows everyone away with her amazing soprano voice, fantastic songs and adorable personality. My pitch-perfect brother later informs me that she reached a high D (the one two octaves above a middle C).

The Whitlams come out to raucous applause. Tim Freedman is undisputably the frontman, being the singer, keyboardist and only surviving member of the original Whitlams, but the current line up of Jak Housden on guitar, Warwick Hornby on bass and Terepai Richmond on drums have now been around longer than the original, and they have a strong rapport with the audience and each other. They play a long set of twenty or so songs, starting with what is probably their biggest hit 'No Aphrodisiac' and then playing a mix of old favourites and sogns off the new album, with Tim playing a few songs solo in the middle of the set on his piano. As is tradition, the entire audience sings 'Charlie no. 2', providing the backing vocals for Tim sitting by himself at the piano. The interaction between Tim and the audience is less rock star and fans and more like old friends.

The crowd is suitably tranquil, as The Whitlams style is laidback pop songs and ballads, allowing Tim's smooth voice to carry the melodies, but the more upbeat numbers get everyone moving. They come out for two encores, closing with the ever-popular oldie 'I Make Hamburgers', the hour and a half long set leaving punters happy and sated. Tim and co may have been around for a while now but they still put on a cracker show.

There are photos at my flickr (www.flickr.com/photos/worldofcheese) but blogger's being a biatch and not letting me add them. So go see them there.

-R

Just a quick update...

...so that you all (well, Brendan anyway) will stop bugging me. Not so detailed, because late hour+lack of sleep = the brain, she no work so well right now.

Actually I don't really know what to say. I went to JB Hi-Fi Bourke St today where Tripod did an instore promoting their new DVD. I wasn't going to get it but of course I did. Worth every penny, it's an absolute pisser. They could easily be a serious band if they wanted, musically they are very talented, amazing voices and great tunes. I'm glad they choose to make us laugh though. Fact for the day: Gatesy is not an original member. He came in a couple of years after Tripod first started, to replace another guy or something.

There will be a Whitlams gig review and photos soon, probably tomorrow. I'm writing it for a webzine so it'll have to be up. Meanwhile I should probably get some sleep before I fall asleep here.

-R

PS I have a myspace at http://www.myspace.com/bobthemelburnian and you may check it out if you wish. Can't remember if I've plugged it before. I should work out how to put links and shit on too shouldn't I.

New musicness

New bands I've discovered recentlyish and really like:

The Grates: from Brisbane. Energetic guitars and drums rockin along with Patience's sweet and sassy vocals riding high over the top. The girl has energy. Standout song: Trampoline. I defy you to sit still while listening to it. www.myspace.com/thegrates

The Long Blondes: Fun vintage sounding guitar pop with sweet vocals. They have a guitarist called Dorian. Standout song: Once and Never Again. The first song where I have felt like the singer read my diary and then wrote the song to sing especially to me. www.myspace.com/thelongblondes

Bricolage: More guitar music you can dance to, a la Franz Ferdinand. All catchy, clean sounding guitary riffs and groovy beats. Standout song: The Waltzers, with a distinctive and instantly memorable two note riff bopping along. www.myspace.com/bricolagetheband

Sorry for the absurd reviews. It's 2:35 and I'm tired.

-R

Survey

I used to get a lot of these in the email from a certain friend. Here's one from the franz ferdinand forum. I'm bored.

1. Are you allergic to anything? If so, what?
Sulphites (in food), and nickel. And idiots. They make me turn violent/disdainful.
2. What is your religion?
Catholic
3. What was the last thing you ate?
Lasagna
4. Give me a summary of the last dream you remember having.
I was running through Crown Casino with a complete stranger, then he kissed me. It was weird.
5. What do you plan to do when you get out of highschool? If you are out of highschool, then what do you do?
I'm at university and on weekends I'm a dish hand.
6. Are you homosexual, bi, Asexual, or straight?
Straight
7. What is your earliest memory?
going under the Sydney Harbour Bridge on a boat, in my mum's arms.
8. Who is your favorite band/artist?
Possibly Franz Ferdinand
9. Who is your 2nd favorite band/artist?
possibly Interpol, which has risen rapidly up the ranks.
10. If you could change anything about your phsical body, what would it be?
my ass.
11. If you could change anything about your personality, what would it be?
I would be more confident.
12. What is your favorite commercial?
The citroen C4 one where the car turns into a dancing robot.
13. What is your favorite one hit wonder?
Achy Breaky Heart by Billy Ray Cyrus. More for nostalgia than anything else.
14. Who was your first celebrity crush?
Kieren Perkins when I was 7.
15. Do you think your weird?
Nope. I feel like I'm the only normal one and everyone else are the weirdos. Actually yeah I am a little strange.
16. What is your opinion on George Bush?
The missing link between monkey and human.
17. Do you have a thing for emo kids?
Actually, the look is growing on me. I dig pale skinny men. Pale skinny men with floppy fringes and black skinny jeans is nice. But lose the My Chemical Romance t-shirts and the attitude, please.
18. Do you like boy on boy action?
I'm a straight girl. Of course I do! Just like guys love girls together.
19. Do you like girl on girl action?
That one, not so much.
20. Do you read slash fiction?
I have, and it freaked me out. I don't want to think about the members of my favourite bands having sex with each other. I'd rather think about them having sex with me.
21. What eye color turns you on?
Blue
22. What is your eye color?
Dark brown
23. List a few of your friends on this forum.

24. Do you post at any other forums? If so, which ones?

25. What is your favorite website?
franzferdinand.org or youtube.com
26. What do you like to do when you are bored to make the time pass?
listen to music
27. Do you like to read?
yep
28. Who is your role model?
I don't really know.
29. Who is your favorite female celebrity?
Cate Blanchett. She's beautiful and luminous and gracious and elegant and all those things I'm not.
30. Who is your favorite male celebrity?
Ioan Gruffudd.
31. Do you enjoy answering these questions?
um yeah...don't know if I'll regret it later on though.
32. What kind of music does your mom like?
James blunt...and pop jazz like Michael Buble and Mark Sholtez. And Eva Cassidy. And of course 60s pop like The Beatles.
33. What kind of music does your dad like?
The Beatles, Diana Krall, Billy Joel...he plays guitar so lots of pop songs from his youth.
34. What is your favorite cartoon?
mmmm probably Family Guy
35. What is your favorite television channel?
The food channel
36. What country do you live in?
Australia
37. What time is it where you are?
11:37 am
38. How was your day?
It hasn't exactly started yet
39. If you could be a mod in this forum, would you?

40. Do you smoke?
nope
41. Do you drink?
not very much, which means I get drunk really easily
42. Do you think I'm crazy for thinking up all these questions?
quite.
43. Who is your least favorite celebrity?
Ashlee simpson
44. Are you single?
yep
45. Are you a feminist?
not really...
46. Are you sure?
yep
47. When do you predict the world will end?
whent he sun swallows it.
48. Do you believe in Aliens?
yes, there's got to be something out there
49. Do you believe in Big Foot?
nope
50. Have you ever visited Alaska?
nope
51. Do you wish you could be Darth Vader?
nope
52. What is your full name?
Oh come on, I've revealed my real first name. You can expect more than that.
53. Are you lying to me?
nope
54. Are you pregnant?
lol God I dont think so!
55. What is the weather like where you live?
cloudy. windy. cool.
56. Are you a good speller?
yes
57. If you could have dinner with anyone dead or alive, who would it be?
Alex Kapranos. He loves food, has had some incredible life experiences (okay his whole life is an incredible experience) and is by all accounts and from limited personal experience, a really really friendly and nice guy. I'd love to sit down and have a good meal with him and talk.
58. Who is your favorite member of Franz Ferdinand?
possibly Nick.
59. When did you last go to VicRoads?
When I got my Ls in 2004
60. Have you ever drove a car?
Yes
61. Do you like the thong song?
nope
62. Have you ever beat up someone?
nope. I fight like a girl.
63. Have you ever been beat up?
nope.
64. Are you an early bird?
god no
65. When did you last visit franzferdinand.co.uk?
this morning
66. which do you like better, Omigawdzzilla or omigod?
omigod.
67. Do you have your own website?
well duh
67. What's wrong with you?
what's wrong with YOU?
68. What is a word you often use?
'like'. As in, 'I was like' and 'it's like'....I hate it!
69. Are you a wanker?
hahaha...no.
70. Do you believe in magic?
nope
71. Do you have braces?
nope
72. Do you have any rotten teeth?
nope
73. Are you afraid of the Dr.?
nope
74. Does Franz Ferdinand own you?
nope. But they can if they want.
75. What are you wearing?
pyjamas.
76. What is your favorite subject in school?
Lunch break.
77. Are you stupid?
What's with the abusive questions?
78. Do you often accessorize your style?
yeah
79. Do you like to wear dressies?
more so now than previously.
80. If you had a kid, what would you name it?
depends on whether it was a boy or girl.
81. What are you favorite types of jokes?
Dead baby ones.
82. Do you ever get your nails done?
nope. I'm ashamed to show others my enormous callous and that I bite my cuticles (I used to bite my nails)
83. When did you last go to the salon?
Last weekish
84. What current song do you really like at the moment?
Once and Never Again by The Long Blondes. I feel like she looked at my life and wrote the song just for me. Keep an eye out for them.
85. Are you bored?
Why else would I be doing this?
86. Does your school serve good cafeteria food?
Uni has a range of cafes but I'm tight and I brign my own lunch
87. If you could change your gender, would you?
nope
88. Which is better, proper english or omigawd leik internet txt talk!?
proper english.
89. Do you use swear words?
fuck yeah.
90. What do you think will happen to yourself after you die?
I will be cremated and my ashes scattered in all my favourite cities.
91. What would be your dream come true?
to make a living as a bassist
92. Beauty or brains?
brains
93. Do you wish you were famous?
mmmm it'd be kinda cool I suppose
94. If you could be any animal, what would you be?
dog, mine are so spoilt
95. If you could be a child again, would you?
nope. I was so impatient to be 18, I'd hate to go through all that waiting again
96. What was the last mistake you made?
I can't remember, I make too many of them to keep track
97. Do you believe that everything happens for a reason?
nope
98. Where are you right now?
in front of the computer
99. Are you depressed?
nope
100. Do you have any tatoos?
nope
101. Do you feel better now that you answered 100 pointless questions?
erm...nope

Just to clarify...

One of my friends (I won't name names) thought my big news is that I'm gay. Well, as plausible as that may seem, believe it or not, that's actually NOT my big news. Rest assured, all will be revealed at some point.

Far too much to blog

I've decided to make some rather large changes to my life at this stage. I won't say anything yet, but stay tuned for some possible big news. What I will say is that it may involve writing.

Ever since I've beent thinking about this quite enormous upheaval, I've been finding inspiration to write from everywhere. It's the complete opposite of my usual writer's block and quite unnerving I can tell you. On the days when I forget to take a notebook and pen with me I actually start panicking in my usual low key way because words and thoughts are flowing like vapours through my head and I know if I don't get them down immediately they'll be lost. Not completely, I'll be able to get down the gist, but that clarity and sharp clear colour that comes with the immediacy of thought translated into words will be gone.

My next problem is, I write so much down nowadays there's really no way I have the time or patience to transcribe everything to my blog. What I need is a PDA or laptop with WiFi so I can blog on the run. I rarely actually sit down these days at the computer with the specific intention to blog (God I love that word as a verb). Mostly I'll write them out and about and transcribe them later. My current top priority to transcribe is...well, I wouldn't call it a review, but more of an account of lunch at The Brasserie by Philippe Mouchel. I wrote it not an hour after going there on Monday, but it's still sitting in my notebook.

So anyway enough about my verbal diaorrhea. I went to my first gym class on Wednesday, Body Combat it's called. It's a combination of fighting and aerobics. Apart from the fact that I nearly died, it was enormous fun. The instructor was just so chipper and the fact that he was able to be chirpy and talk the whole hour while doing the full routines shows how fit he is. Being in a group is great too, you don't want to slack off if there's so many around you with a common goal and a hyperactive ginger up the front with a mic. I'll definitely go back, even though I worke up the next morning feeling like I'd actually been in a real fight.

That's enough now. I've got to get sleep - working double tomorrow as usual. I want to write some before I go to bed, but like I need anymore to add to my backlog of transcribing...

-Robyn

A Girl's got to eat

Ah! so very happy. Went downstairs just now looking for lunch and found a stash of cold pizza leftover from last night. Gold. Cold pizza is the best.

I ended up going out for dinner last night with my parents. We went to Cafe La at the Sofitel on Collins Street. I don't get to go to very many nice places to eat (the last time I ate out was a $9 gnocchi amatriciana on Lygon St, which was passable but not spectacular) so this was quite exciting. Cafe La is 35 floors up and we had a great view out over the Yarra and Fed Square and the Arts Centre area. It was all posh too, waiters in ties and suits and everything.

I had the meredith goat's cheese and leek tart with onion jam and some kind of apple/balsamic sauce thing. It was really good, the flavours all coming together really well. There were little bits of creamy and sharp goat's cheese complementing the slightly sweet caramelised onions and leek on a little sheet of puff pastry, with the tangy apple and balsamic sauce dotted around the edge. According to my 'aunt' Sandy (we're not realted but you know the whole honorary aunt and uncle thing) I'm the most gourmet 19 year old she knows. I have expensive taste, what can I say. I still don't drink wine but I had a taste of their...cab merlot or whatever it was last night and I could see what they were talking about with the smoothness. I think my palate needs to mature more before I can appreciate it.

For dessert there was a chocolate fondue that I tried a piece of. The chocolate ganache wasn't great, too watery for my liking but the turkish delight made on the premises was divine, and I don't usually like turkish delight so this was really good, soft and delicately flavoured. I had a passionfruit delicious which was exactly that, with vanilla ice-cream and some superphantastisch passionfruit sauce. I couldn't fit in hot chocolate, I was far too full to do anything except sit back with a sigh and watch the twinkling lights below being washed by lashes of cold rain.

-R

Bar.

First up, real name. It's Robyn. ta-fucking-daa. I finally let go of the whole 'ooh I'm not gonna reveal my real name on the net and be all mysterious', mainly because I don't want people who I end up meeting in real life calling me by my username (which has happened), and also because I already know pretty much everyone who reads this blog anyway (not that there's a whole lot of you).

So yeah. I'm at George's right now, like I seem to be a lot these days. We went on a bar crawl last night with her and some of her eng friends, namely Ben, Andrew and Brendan who organised it. It was great, I'd never been to any of them before except for Robot. The boys started out at Young and Jacksons. We were meant to meet them there but George's meeting with her thesis supervisor or whatever he is ran quite late so as soon as we met them at Y&J we moved on...to mcdonalds. Well we did need to eat! The cashier at maccas wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer, but then she was a cashier at maccas.

The first place we went to was the Gin Palace, which was really posh looking, all dark velvet drapes and gilded picture frames. They even framed the airconditioning vent, which I thought was a nice touch. It was very pretty and the waiters had awesome uniforms. I wasn't drinking so I had some fruity kind of mocktail which was nice. Even the ice was special - instead of just being cubes it was flat little rectangles. There were lots of little armchairs around little tables so we had our armchairs at a table with a hole in the wall seat. Apparently the men's loo has an unusual bit of decoration in the form of an upside down urinal at head height.

Next up we went to the Croft Institute, which I've read about before. You have to go through this creepy graffiti filled alleyway in Chinatown to get to it. Soem chinese chef in a white puffy hat waved to us as we walked past. Croft is set up like a sinister looking lab, all tiles and white or off white furniture and walls. It was practically empty so we didn't stick around, only going upstairs to have a look at the bathrooms. They were quite scary. The girls one had a hospital bed in the corner, and looked like a set from a japanese horror film. There was an eye wash basin but we tried it out and nothing happened.

After the creepiness of Croft we went to the Chaise Lounge, which was really nice. It was decorated in the same style as Gin Palace, all dark reds and vintagey looking, but more casual. The front was quite full when we went in and a three-piece jazz band was playing (and they were quite good too) but George went up the back and found a little room with sofas in it so we hung out there for quite a while. It was nice and cosy. We talked about bathrooms a lot and George nearly got herself locked into the ladies.

Our last stop was Robot, which used to be my semi-regular tuesday night hangout (they show anime on Tuesday nights) so it was a nice way to end the evening. Very quiet again, but it was Wednesday night. We even sat in my usual corner. We had to end the night at that because Melbourne's public transport ends at midnight which SUCKS. It was raining for most of our walk through the city but it was quite mild so it wasn't too bad. Then of course you're walking with friends and that which is always enjoyable.

Now I have a confession to make. George and I were so impatient on the train home, we could hardly stand it. The tension was unbearable. We couldn't even wait to get home so we did it in the car. That's right, we cracked open the creamed spinach dip and pita bread in the car on the way home. :D Thank god for 24 hour Coles is all I can say.

So yeah. Great night. I'd love to do it again and see more little bars. Melbourne has a lot of them.

I should also probably write something about easter and the comedy festival, but that's for next time because I'm lazy and this entry is already quite long.

-Robyn

Hi. Haven't blogged in a while. Too busy, or too lazy, take your pick. Nothing much to say either. Work's all good, I'm becoming quite fast, thankyou very much. I did kind of reinjure my shoulder this weekend by lifting a stack of cast iron pans to the shelf (forgot about the whole no heavy lifting thing) but I have this weekend off for easter so I'll recover hopefully. I'm going into the city today to meet a friend for coffee and I'll buy a 'teach yourself' bass book while I'm there. And I've decided (well almost decided) to buy a $350 coat. It's beautiful and I think it'd go with most of my wardrobe. I'll try it on today.

And Easter Bash is this weekend! Can't wait!

-R

Sorry about the boring post, like I said, not much happening. Oh, but I do have stacks of new photos on my flickr site, mostly gig shots of Kaiser Chiefs, Franz Ferdinand and Black Keys. http://www.flickr.com/photos/worldofcheese is where you need to go.

Rot in hell, douchebag.

Yesterday I had my wallet stolen. It wa largely my own stupid fault as I'd left my bag open. I don't usually read on the tram but I'd come all the way from the physio in Caulfield (which is an entirely different story) so I'd had my little nose buried in Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential (great book, makes my job look like child's play). I was so engrossed in the coke snorting, ecuadorian line cook poaching, demi glaceing antics of Bourdain and his cohorts that I nearly missed my stop, so I jumped up, stashed my book, checked that my wallet was there, and jumped off, leaving my bag open in my rush.

It was about 10 metres from the tram stop to the shop I was going into, and I'm guessing that in that 10 metres, my wallet went AWOL. I didn't even realise that it was gone until I went to pay at the cash register. At first I didn't bat an eyelid, thinking maybe it'd slipped into a hole in the lining (which has happened before). However when I turned the whole bag inside out and it wasn't there or in the changeroom, mild panic set in. Had I left it on the tram? Nope. I'd checked that it was there as I got off. Trying to remain calm, I set off for the cop shop on Flinders Lane. As I was walking down Swanston St, it gradually dawned on me what had actually been stolen. The realisation of each newly missing item was like a punch in the gut. Licence. Bam! Student ID. Bam! Concession card. Bam! Debit Card. Bam! CREDIT CARD. BAM!

Needless to say, by the time I arrived at the police station, I was nearly in tears, sweating, practically reeling, punch-drunk. 'You absolute fucking braindead IDIOT! How could you lose so much shit!' was the train of thought I was maintaining as my stress leveles completely maxed out. I'm not a drugs kind of person (as you all know very well), but if someone had offered me a joint I would've smoked the whole thing in one drag. I was freaking.

So my first visit to a police station wasn't exactly grand. I waited for ages before someone came to see me, then I had to wait for an officer to come and help me, so more waiting. There was a woman from Perth who'd also had her purse stolen on Swanston St. My mum turned up and I'm a little embarrassed to say I had a tiny bit of a cry because I was so fucking screwed. After a while some officer dude came to help me and I had to call and cancel all my cards and shit, which took a while. Some Indian guy with a terrible fake American accent palmed me off to some Indian guy with a terrible Australian accent, who clacked away on keyboards and ummed and ahhed before cancelling my credit card. Props to the Comm bank though who were efficient and helpful. Apparently the officer dude who helped me was good looking (my mum said that), but I don't think I would've noticed if it were the fucking queen, as I had slightly more important things on my mind.

Anyway after an hour in the station I decided to head home, where a message was waiting for me - my wallet had been found! Whoever stole it took all the cash and then went to a handbag shop up the street and hid it in one of the handbags. The staff in the shop found it, went through it, found my gym card and called my gym, who called me. So it was straight back to the city to reclaim my now cashless wallet and then I went back to the police station to tell officer dude what happened. At least he now believed that it'd been stolen and I hadn't just dropped it. Fortunately my cards were in there (although I'd already cancelled them), unfortunately the cash is long gone. $35 might not sound like much but it's 3 hour's pay.

So yes. So much stress I could've done without. To the douchebag who stole my wallet: rot in hell, my friend.

-R

Oh yeah, the physio. I got elbowed in the shoulder at work and 'corked' a shoulder muscle. So not only did I get sent home from work because I couldn't move, I had to go and get it taped up. So now I look like footballer, I can't move my arm and the tape is really really fucking itchy.

written wednesday march 15 2006 (during a boring Italian tute)

Shed 14 at Docklands is filled with shipping containers. But instead of telivisions and furniture, they contain art installationg as part of the Next Wave arts festival. The spaces in between are buzzing with creatively dressed and uber sophisticated bohemian types with great hair. Wandering amongst them in my uni student jeans and t-shirt, I feel at ease and yet uncomfortable. I love being around creative people, but I've never felt more uncool in my life. With relief I spot my cousin on the catwalk above, and while I wait for him to come down I have a look at some of the installations, but I end up just marvelling at how effortlessly cool everyone else seems. Where do all these people hide when they're not at art festivals? My cousin rescues me and takes me around before leaving me to my own devices. It's all very highbrow and thought provoking. Impossibly slender identical twins, in black shorts and singlets, play handball. Four girls in uniform spit bouncy balls and bang loudly against the side of their container. I self-consciously draw a t-shirt design of a man in beret, sunglasses and goatee with the slogan 'artier than thou' then I escape to the comfort of the pub quiz with G and her engineering friends, where we come second by a point (our best result ever), and being uncool is okay.

written monday march 13 2006

The morning is cool, grey and not a little wet. I'm trudging down the laneway, bright orange umbrealla in one hand to hold off the half-arsed but constant drizzle, bagel with cream cheese in the other. But I'm not in New York (sadly). We're making our way to the Chinese Museum on Little Bourke St to get ready for this year's Moomba parade.

The city at 8 am on a public holiday is all but deserted. Melbourne Central is eerily quiet, devoid of the usual throng of suits, uni students and truants. Even the Museum is quieter than it was during Chinese New Year. The absence of people is a little unnerving. At 10 am there still aren't enough men to carry the dragon, jeopardising our participation in the parade.

Which is how six of us girls come to be standing on the corner of Russel and Little Bourke Streets in our costumes an hour before the parade, asking people off the street if they'd like to participate. Most people walk past, completely ignoring us, others stop long just long enough to say no. Even the offer of a free lunch can't seem to tempt anyone. However, after as many refusals as propositions, my sister accosts a French backpacker. Jackpot! He seems a little overwhelmed by six excitable girls in costume, but lets himself get whisked away for a crash-course in dragon carrying.

After catching this 'fish', as the excited parade organisers put it, my friend and I cross the street to join another three costumed participants, and to our surprise, we snare another volunteer within a couple of minutes. B lives up the street and is on his way to the supermarket, but is happy to make a slight detour.

By some miracle, the two people we get off the street transform into the five we actually need, and by 10:55 am I'm standing out the front of the Museum, my garishly coloured phoenix's wings flapping softly in the breeze. The Museum is across a cobbled laneway from a block of serviced apartments, and the guests look surprised as they step out into the dull morning to be confronted with a riot of violently coloured silk banners and papier-mache animals. The cacophony of drums, cymbals and gongs waking up the dragon brings a bunch of girls out onto their balcony, where they excitedly snap pictures and wave.

Walking along Little Bourke Street to Swanston Street, where the parade is happening, gives the impression that no one is attending, as the streets are almost empty. I'm just beginning to think that it'll be very embarrassing, all of us parading to no one, when we hit Swanston Street. Which is packed. People cram in five or six deep against bright yellow plastic barriers as far as the eye can see. Shit.

Because we're joining the parade after the actual commencement point, we get to see some of the floats go past. The Play School float is a definite highlight. One of the presenters waves back at me but I don't recognise her - I'm before her time. We're the last float out after Spotswood Primary's mass drumming. One of their teachers is cute.

Walking down Swanston Street as part of a parade instead of a protest is a strange experience. Instead of jeans and a 'support your student union' t-shirt, I'm wearing a red chinese blouse and black satin trousers. The phoenix is a little heavier and more cumbersome than the red flag that a Socialist Alternative member invariable thrusts into my hands during a protest, and requires a red webbing and leather sling for support. Everywhere I look, hundreds of little silver cameras snap photos. It's strange to think that all these people I've never met might be emailing photos of me to their friends. I wave to whoever waves at me and experience what it's like to give that moment of joy to little kids watching the parade.

I feel a little bad when we turn onto Flinders Street before Federation Square, which is still packed with expectant faces, but the dragon is bloody heavy and it's a long walk back. When we turn onto Russell Street and face a fairly steep uphill walk, I can almost hear the poor dragon carriers groaning in dismay. My own arms and legs are beginning to feel the effects of an hour's parading combined with washing dishes all weekend. I'm thankful to relinquish the phoenix and my petroleum-based uniform and head downstairs in time to see the boys finally put the dragon back to sleep. B is all smiles and says he had a great time.

Excuse me while my brain liquefies and dribbles out my nostrils.

Oh God.

This week has been (and you'll excuse my french) abso-fucking-lutely mental. Here it is in short form (because just thinking about it in any longer form tires me right now):

Sunday night: worked till 10:45. Pretty busy because of Labour Day monday. Slept at around midnight.
Monday: woke up at 6:30am. Moomba parade am, then uni, then Commonwealth Games opening ceremony rehearsal in the evening. Get home 11:30 pm, sleep around midnight.
Tuesday: wake up 7:30 am. Uni until 3:15 pm, then killing time until Next Wave arts festival at 6. To the pub quiz at 8, meet parents in city at 10:30, get home around 11. sleep 11:30pm.
Wednesday: get up 7:30. Uni until 4:15, then Commonwealth games opening ceremony at the Yarra. Get home around midnight and straight to bed.
Today: up at 7:30. head to MSAC for the swimming heats, then into the city to kill time until hockey at Parkville at 4pm. Got home about 20 minutes ago.

Anyway, enough of that. I don't want to think about it right now. Instead, I'll put in transcripts of what I've written in my notebook in the past week, with the intention of putting it into the blog straight away, but obviously without the time.

-R

How asian are you?

(stolen from G)
YOU KNOW YOU ARE ASIAN-AUSTRALIAN IF...

1. You regret the fact that you did not learn Mandarin or other Asian language properly in Saturday language school.
well...trueish I suppose it'd be handy for travel, but my parents speak Hokkien anyway. and I never did saturday language class.

2. You say you're Australian, totally forgetting your roots.
True. Well technically I am an Aussie, in as much as I was born here and have spent most of my life here.

3. During childhood you didn't have many Asian friends, played bullrush or handball and ate 'sunny boys' for lunch.
True. My only Asian friends are family friends.

4. A form of choosing was done by 'dip dip'.
False

5. You know you have to shop at an Asian grocery store but you have no idea what you are buying nor can you read any of the food labels.
False - I usually know what I want :)

6. You cheer for Australia during the Olympics, know local Australian bands, and know what a VB is.
Of course!

7. You can speak fluent English without an accent.
Well, if without an accent means Australian, then yes.

8. Know what a Commodore and Falcon are.
True

9. You know you are superior to all other Asians, despite the fact that they beat you in Maths in the VCE, can speak an Asian language fluently and know what they are buying in Asian grocery stores.
lol...pass on that one!

Score: 7/9


33 WAYS TO KNOW IF YOU'RE AN ASIAN

1. You were/are a good student with very high GPAs.
Well, I didn't do so well last year, but I did well at school...

2. You majored in something practical like engineering, medicine or finance.
False! I'm all arts. although I'll be majoring in Psych. maybe.

3. You have more than one-college degree.
Not yet.

4. If you play a musical instrument, it must be piano.
yes, along with bass and violin

5. You have a vinyl table cloth on your kitchen table.
False!

6. Your stove is covered with aluminum foil.
False

7. Your kitchen has a sticky film of grease over it.
False, thankoyu very much. I clean the kitchen well.

8. You beat eggs with chopsticks.
False...I don't think I even hold them properly.

9. You always leave outdoor shoes at the door.
True

10. You use the dishwasher as a dish rack.
False. Believe it or not, we do actually have a dish rack.

11. You keep a Thermos of hot water available at all times.
False

12. You boil water before drinking.
False, although we do have a filter that we use.

13. You fight over who pays the dinner bill.
True, usually.

14. You wash rice 2-3 times before cooking it.
True.

15. You don't dry-clean clothes, even if they need to be dry-cleaned.
False

16. You always cook yourself, even if you hate it.
True, but I don't hate it

17. You do either soccer, swimming, badminton, volleyball, basketball, or ping pong.
I used to do swimming and badminton, yes

18. You buy Christmas cards after Christmas, when they are 50% off.
False, I buy them from the Reject shop so they're cheap anyway :D

19. You hate to waste food:
a) Even if you're totally full, if someone says they're going to throw away the leftovers on the table, you'll finish them.
False
b) You have containers in your fridge with three bites of rice or one leftover chicken wing.
False - if it ever gets that little someone'll usually eat it anyway

20. You don't own any real Tupperware-only a cupboard full of used but carefully rinsed margarine tubs, takeout containers, and jam jars.
False - my mum loves her tupperware.

21. When toilet paper is on sale, you buy 100 rolls and store them.
False

22. You have a collection of miniature shampoo/conditioner bottles and little soap bars that you take every time you stay in a hotel.
True, lol. Very handy for when we go away or when someone stays over and forgets their toothbrush.

23. You carry a stash of your own food whenever you travel (and travel means any car ride longer than 15 minutes).
False - sometimes I take a bottle of water.

24. You spit bones and other food scraps on the table.
False

25. Your dad thinks he can fix everything himself.
True :)

26. When you go to a dance party, there is always a group of guys surrounding the dance floor trying to look cool.
I don't go to dance parties...

27. Your house/aparment is always cold in winter, and hot in summer.
False

28. Your Mom drives her Mercedes to Foodtown, or Shoppers Food Warehouse regardless how far it is, even if the dairy is next door.
False. she drives her Honda to the supermarket 5 minutes away.

29. You always look phone numbers up in the phone book, since calling Directory Assistance costs 50 cents.
False - I use the net

30. You use a colored face cloth every morning.
False

31. You starve yourself before going to all-you-can-eat places.
False - I don't do all-you-can-eat.

32. Almost all your money is in a savings account
False

33. You never discuss your love life with your parents.
False :)

gee...I'm not very asian :)

-R

Ohhhhh wham bam thankyou ma'am!

I found the video of Scissor Sisters and Franz Ferdinand performing Suffragette City at the V festival last year (hence the lyrics in the title). Oh my god. Completely slayed by the hotness. Alex is so camp :D And Paul's wearing his gold lame jacket. Had to fit in with the Scissor Sisters flamboyance I suppose. Ana Matronic's dress was very cool. And of course Jake, shirtless, in tight white pants and a feather boa. Oh my.

At work tonight I learned how to de-bone a duck. It was a little fiddly, but at the same time perversely satisfying, learning how to cleanly peel away the ribcage and spine from the body. The meat was still slightly warm, glistening fat collecting in pools in the cavities. I only successfully deboned two half ducks but hopefully I'll become more proficient.

We didn't serve that many tonight, but for some reason they all came at once. I didn't know whether it was busy or I was just slow. I asked my boss whether it was busy. He's a jokey guy but he plays it so straight I can never tell whether he's serious or not. He just shrugged as if to say 'meh, not really' and I panicked, thinking my dishwashing skills have gone to shit and I'm going to lose my job. I had to ask him whether he was serious or not. I think I need to learn how to eiher read people better or become less gullible.

Anyway, it's sleep for me as I'm working a double tomorrow. Oh the joy, oh the excitement.

-R

Yay! new Franz song

I've just 'acquired' an mp3 of the new Franz song Lynsey Wells from the interweb (ripped from a streaming thing I think). Usually I'm a little wary of new stuff, but I'm listening to it for the first time *right now* and I already love it. This is the one they recorded in the Hothouse studios in St Kilda while they were here for the BDO. Talk about a fast release! I feel a connection already :) How to describe it? It's definitely Franzy, danceable poppy rock with keyboards and strings and acoustic guitars and multilayered vocals and a great melody. Ah fuck it, just listen to it. You lucky UK people will get it with The Fallen as it's a double A-side (Lynsey is obviously the other A-side), the rest of us plebs will hunt it out on the net. Now I'm going to have to scrounge around on the off chance that Jeremy Fraser's up somewhere, although that's less likely as it's a B-side. I wonder if all the new tracks will have full names on them :) although Brown Onions doesn't. Apparently it's an instrumental with Andy (Knowles, their live keyboardist and drum tech) on drums, Paul on bass and Bob on guitar with Nick and Alex. Or something.

I saw Kinky Boots tonight with a couple of friends. It's your typical feelgood enjoyable british comedy, well if you can call a Northampton shoe factory making shoes for drag queens typical. It was very enjoyable with a lot of laughs and Joel Edgerton did a good job. Very undemanding movie for the end of the uni week. Something my mum would enjoy too - go on, take your mum to the movies.

-R

How exactly do publishers justify the amount of money they charge for textbooks? I'm a student, not a millionaire. Students are the last people who you should overcharge. Today I spent $120 on one textbook and one reader. The textbook alone was $110. That's half a week's pay gone right there. 10 hours of washing dishes. I'm really not looking forward to seeing how much the Italian will be if and when it finally arrives next week. Last year it was $150.

So I was reading my textbook (which is on developmental psychology) in the library this afternoon. It was either that or sleep through a behavioural neuroscience lecture. The first five pages of chapter one are basically an essay on why you should study child psychology. Mate, I just blew half my paycheck on your bloody book. Fuck the essay, the price is incentive enough for me to read it cover to cover and absorb as much knowledge as is humanely fucking possible.

Spicks and Specks was good as usual tonight, but no Substitute! They had Ali McGregor and Alex Lloyd at their disposal. I was surprised.

Anyway I'm off. Really should get some sleep.

-R

Fuck you, James Blunt, for 'You're Beatiful,' which I now get.

I saw the most heartbreakingly beautiful boy coming home on the train today. He was an indie boy if I had to stick a label on him. Floppy ever so slightly long brown hair, beautiful brown eyes, khaki trousers and a white button down shirt, rolled up and undone at the collar. I bet he was listening to Belle and Sebastian on his iPod. I couldn't stop staring at him on the train. I was sitting a few rows away facing him, and admittedly I spent most of the ride staring at him. He was just...you don't see guys like that every day. In fact, in my case, I don't see guys like that. Ever. Stop after stop went by and he didn't get off. The stop before me, he made a move and my heart stopped. But he didn't get off.

He didn't get off at my stop either. I'll probably never see him again. But you get that.

Mum was playing James Blunt in the car. I now get that fucking song.

-R

Hmm. I had to actually read my blog this morning as I was so tired last night I couldn't even remember what I wrote. Then I was worried that I would've written something really embarrassing, because I actually did fall asleep while writing that entry, and I had to wake up to finish it off. Lucky there was nothing incriminating there.

Well I'm feeling much better this morning. My feet tingle a little and my left arm's still sore but Sunday nights at work are usually quite dead, so much so that usually they only put one person on the other side doing dishes and food. I think the boss wants me in so S can teach me food things tonight.

Anyway I have to go down to claen the kitchen, then I have to burn some CDs for S. I'm really getting her into some good music :) As well as Franz Ferdinand she's getting into Kaiser Chiefs, End of Fashion and The Whitlams. I might burn her some Decemberists and Beatles too. :)

-R

New Technology

(hey, a song title that actually relates to the post!)

So I'm sitting in bed on my laptop, and my brother is sitting at the computer in his room, and we're talking on msn. This is fucking ridiculous :)

Work was full on tonight. Last night we did 37, it was completely dead and we were out of there by 10:30. Today lunch was pretty quiet and we just cruised through the afternoon. Tonight we did 89.

I died. My arms have completely been crippled. My feet are still throbbing. And I'm working tomorrow night. Hurrah.

anyway I'm about to fall asleep while typing, although that could lead to some pretty interesting sentences.

-R

So, first days back and that

I've had my first week of uni. Funnily enough, it doesn't feel like I ever went on holiday in the first place. It's been pretty good as far as first weeks go, nice weather although today was a little warm. I joined the Groove dance club, doing hip hop and locking and stuff. It's so much fun! I took a lesson yesterday after being told about it, then went along to the hip hop intermediate today. To my utter surprise I actually kept up for the most part. The only thing I'm having trouble with is turning (surprise surprise!) and getting that whole hip hop 'attitude'. I'm too used to dancing tap and ballet and being all disciplined and graceful.

I haven't really had that many hours thisweek, no tutes except for Italian. I managed a very succinct and halted recount of my holidays in Italian yesterday (Which basically consisted of 'I worked a lot in the kitchen of an Italian restaurant and I went to a rock concert' - niente di speziale in other words...). There's scholarships up for grabs this year and I badly want one so I'd better work hard on my vocab!

A couple of days ago I was on the train as usual, coming into Flinders St. Usually I'm looking in the direction of the MCG and the Herald Sun building, but for some reason this morning I looked in the opposite direction, and what do I see but the Sydney Myer Music Bowl. I was a little ashamed that I'd never seen it before - admittedly I usually take the train from Richmond to Melbourne Central these days but last year I went to Flinders St quite a bit. I need to be more observant. Getting home last night was fun too, it took us over an hour. The tram and trains were completely packed-H and I were hanging onto each other and 'triangulating' a frame with our limbs because we were stuck int he middle of the carriage and we're too short to reach the ceiling. It was actually quite amusing.

So I'm just here in the uni computer lab, wasting time because I have no idea how to get to the South Melbourne Lifesaving Club to meet my mum and sister. They don't finish until 7.30. Bummer. And I really want to get home to hang up my new Franz Ferdinand poster. I never realised how good uni poster sales are until today :)

-R

Why don't you walk away?

(yes, I'm still going with the song-lyric-as-title idea).

I just went to mass with my family as I'm not working tonight, I'm working tomorrow instead. Every mass they read out the names of the sick and recently deceased in our parish. Despite the fact that I've never met and will never meet most of these people (with the exception of one man who used to mow our lawn), when you hear their names week after week you start to develop some kind of tenuous connection with them. Then every week when the names are read out, you begin to feel very tense. Are the names you know still on the sick list? Or have they 'departed into eternal life before us'? You get more and more nervous until you hear that name. Then you breathe a sigh of relief. They're still sick, but they're still alive.

...It's quite morbid, I know. But I get this feeling every time I go to mass.

-R

slow burn

holy crap, someone just delivered the paper and I still haven't gone to sleep.

laptop with wireless internet that can be surfed while sitting in bed = evil!

-R

Try to catch a deluge in a paper cup

I've given up trying to think of interesting titles all the time. If I can't think of anythig within 10 seconds of the page loading, then I'm going with whatever lyric's stuck in my head at the time. This one's from the Sarah Blasko version of 'Don't Dream It's Over', originally by Crowded House. Can I just say - girl crush! She's gorgeous. And has a good voice. I got her stuff from G and I've listened to it quite a bit. Heaps of new music. Was listening to Fiery Furnaces today (damn, Eleanor Friedberger is a lucky girl). My favourite of theirs is still Tropical Iceland, which I didn't actually know was by them until this week. I still haven't listened to any David Bowie, but I'm thinking tomorrow after I get home from work and I'm chilling out in my (still rather untidy) room I might give it a shot. I'm eager to hear 'Slow Burn' after hearing it covered very well by G's friends in Burbank on the fourth of July last year.

Anyway, speaking about work, it was damn busy tonight. We didn't actually do that many covers, I think about 60 which is a fairly good night for us, but they all came at once and for about an hour or hour and a half it was like a busy saturday night. I surprised everyone, not least myself, by keeping up quite well with the dishes. I wasn't feeling my best, a little lethargic for the first couple of hours. It's amazing how a full restaurant can motivate you though. S kept me sane and happy too. Unfortunately she had to go home early because she's been working doubles all week and is exhausted, so she did a bit of cleanup after service ended, then it was all me until closing time. I think I did OK considering, I only finished a few minutes after front of house, and this was with me doing two people's worth of packing up, cleaning the stove, benchtops, dishwasher, rubbish, mopping and sweeping and all the other little things involved in closing. It's the least glamourous job I've had as I end up smelling revoltingly of oil and feeling pretty oily too, but funnily enough I quite enjoy it, despite being wrecked at the end of the night. I came out the front of the restaurant when I'd finally finished to wait for my mum and there were these two hot young things who'd just come from Mint, the nightclub across the road. There they were, all long hair and fake tan and stilettos and non-existent dresses, and there was I, all greasy pale skin and hair and bonds trackies and clarks school shoes. I would not swap with them for a second (...well, they did look like tacky slappers).

I've got work tomorrow again at 11am, so I'm waiting for my bro and his lovely girlfriend to come home so I can say hi and go pass out for 8 hours.

-R

PS The other contender for the lyric tonight was 'gonna have nutella tonight', a misheard lyric from 'Tell Her Tonight' (It's meant to go 'gonna have to tell her tonight). But although it made me nearly wet myself with laughter when I read it, it's not really a lyric, so the serious soulful one wins this time.

So come and dance with me Michael

Here I am again at G's place. We haven't actually got a whole lot done because her iPod arrived this morning and we've kind of been distracted. I raided her iTunes music library and doubled my music stash - I now have something like 6.4GB of music on there! Lots of David Bowie now. And the Franz Glastonbury 2004 gig. Can't wait to hear it :) I'm discovering a lot of new stuff as well, like Big Soul. And I want to get my iPod engraved...G has 'Ich heisse superphantastisch' on hers, I might get the accompanying line 'Ich trinke schampus mit lachsfisch' on mine.

Tonight we're doing the pub quiz again. We'll see whether we can do better then second last this time round!

-R

Barcode SUCKS...

...but I'm sure you all knwo that by now. We went there after the quiz night (where we came third, hooray! and yet boo), for the second week in a row. The song list is shit and the DJs such a fox fm wannabe. We're going to find a new karaoke bar for next time.

-R

You can feel my lips undress your eyes...

(the lyric from Darts of Pleasure that was playing a second ago when I was trying to think of a title).

Just thought I'd write a quick entry, seeing as I've already got the laptop on to check the weather tomorrow and find a restaurant address (I still can't get over the fact that I can now do all that from the comfort of my own room). I'm going to G's place again tonight to stay another two nights and get all musical. Maybe we'll record something this week - I've been working on that bassline for Michael like a demon! My fingertips are actually starting to peel from the old blisters. We might just have crack at Jacqueline this week too, we'll see how it all pans out tonight and tomorrow. I'm excited :) Augh Michael just came on! Bassline, bassline! 'Beautiful boys on a beautiful dancefloor, Michael you're dancing like a beautiful dance whore...' ah, love it.

-R

Singular

I thought I would tell everyone here so that you all don't hear some crazy version from someone else. T and I decided to call it quits tonight, after going out for the better part of two and a half years. It was a mutual decision and amicably made. That's pretty much all you need to know.

And on another note, I'm sitting here blogging from my bed (I'm actually *in* bed), listening to a playlist I've just compiled in my iPod. How high tech am I?

-R

Just because I can...

I'm writing a blog entry while sitting on my brother's bed. My laptop's just been wirelessy networked to the net (finally!) so here I am, my trusty Acer Travelmate 347T perched on my lap while I hunch over the edge of my brother's bed. I'd blog from my own bedroom, but it's just too messy. We had a few hiccups after installing the card, the laptop kept freezing. Probably because I'm running Windows Me. My computer's never frozen before this becuse I've never really tried to do anything cool with it before. So hopefully it won't freeze too much now!

Well, I'm excited to say the least. I can now blog from anywhere in the house. I might do a blog tour of my house, one entry from each room (well maybe not the toilet, that's just unhygenic). When I've tidied my room I can blog from there too! I might try and upgrade my computer to Windows 2000 as well. It's nice to finally have a functional laptop again after all this time - now it's not sitting in my room collecting dust.

-R

All nighter

I've just pulled an all nighter!

For whatever reason I didn't go to bed immediately after writing the blog entry. I just surfed until my bro and his girlfriend got home and we've been chatting downstairs ever since. It's now growing light outside and I'm still wide awake. Considering whether to go and get that 2 hours of sleep or just stay awake until tonight. I might force myself into bed to get a little rest but I'm really not tired, which is surprising. The birds are already beginning their morning chorus outside my window. I almost want to be out there experiencing the dawn with them, the promise of a new day.

-R

Is it sad...

that when I bought a bottle of nutella with the promo Spongebob Squarepants character magnets in the lid, I searched through every jar until I foung a Spongebob magnet?

-R

Winter lovin', Trolley Karma and late night cleanups

I'm officially a winter girl. As recently as a year ago, it would take me the better part of a day in the sun with no protection to come anywhere near a sunburn. Today I was outdoors for less than three hours and in the sun for maybe half an hour and my shoulders are sunburnt. Not blistering but rather pink. I've never sunburnt so fast in my whole life (the only other time I've been sunburnt was the 2003 Big Day Out, where I forgot my sunscreen). The only thing I'm annoyed about is that now my shoulders will be much darker than my face.

And yes, I've had some freakin good trolleys this week. Namely on Wednesday at Safeway Kew and yesterday at Coles Church St. They were perfect trolleys! No drifting or anything, steered so smoothly. Perhaps I'm a little too overjoyed by this but it's the little things in life that can really make you happy. I seriously wanted to buy one of them to use as my personal trolley wherever I go from now on.

And lastly, S and I finally got to have music on while we cleaned up the kitchen at work tonight. It's amazing how music changed the mood - usually we're exhausted and just wanting to be out of there as fast as possible, but this time we were actually enjoying doing all the dishes together! Bizarre. I accidentally upended a bucket full of utensils on her with my hose and we just about wet ourselves laughing. It really wasn't that funny and I'm sure it was quite painful for S, but we were so bloody tired that everything was suddenly hilarious. I did six hours tonight and I think I may be finally getting the hang of this dishwashing gig. Hopefully I'll have three nights next week which means I can actually pay for some textbooks.

-R

Here ya go

...and you thought I wasn't gonna put any photos up. You thought wrong.
World Of Cheese <--go there. The photos are there. There's a couple of photos of G and me arseing around in the alley but not too many because my bandwidth limit is ridiculously small.

-R

I'm a baby sea tuna...

Greetings!

I'm at G's place for the second night in a row tonight. We caught up yesterday and went to a quiz night at The Pub at Crown, then decided the easiest thing would be for me to crash at her place so I wouldn't have to worry about taking the last train home. It's great to see her again as I haven't seen her for a while. We wandered around the city for a bit, up to DeGreaves lane to take some photos amongst the overflowing skips and the wild graffitti. We took some pretty cool photos until the sickly sweet odour of rotting garbage had us hightailing it to Southbank. We went to take more photos at that art installation that looks like a crumbling sandstone building but my camera died. When I get home I'll put up the photos. I'm wearing my new Dangerfield jacket - a black woollen winter one. I'd tried on one previously that was my exact mental image of my ideal winter jacket, but it was Costume National (since when did Myer become designer central?) and $1289. *dies* the DF one was a tenth of that. And still just as nice.

So yeah, we went to the pub quiz. We didn't come last and Georgina won us a few cocktails which was nice. Our team name was Baby Sea Tunas, after a misheard lyric from the Franz Ferdinand song Dark of the Matinee (it's meant to be 'I'm on BBC2 now...'). After the quiz we went round to Barcode for karaoke. Yes that's right. G and I made ourselves look like a lesbian couple (unintentionally I might add) by singing 'Can't Buy Me Love' as a duet. I guess it was Valentine's Day so people may have thought we were out together. Next week we're going to go back and sing 'Don't Go Breaking My Heart'. Just to really confuse them. We sang some Kaiser Chiefs in the car on the way home, and something really freaky happened when we pulled into the driveway - a fucking MASSIVE spider had built a cobweb right across the driveway! we drove through it and were freaking out because we thought the spider might be on the car. We got out really quickly and RAN through the garden to the road, trying not to scream. We're so sad.

Anyway last night G and I had a play on her iBook and discovered the joys of Garage Band, namely the ability to record drum tracks without a drummer. We decided to record a cover version of 'Michael' (by Franz, surprise surprise) so this morning I laid down the shittest drum track ever heard. It takes a little getting used to, typing out the drums. I'll do this one but I'm making George do the next. Or we're going to find a real drummer. Anyway as has happened the last few times I've stayed over, I've ended up staying another night. Mum dropped my bass to me this evening so we had a good old bash at the song and it's sounding ok now, although we've had to stop because of finger soreness. We need to build some callouses! G's also working on playing and singing at the same time. It's easy for me - I'm doing backing vocals for this one and all I have to sing is 'Hey you, hey you good looking' repeatedly throughout the chorus.

SO tomorrow it's home for me, but the bass amp stays here so that when I come over next week I can record some more. Hurrah!

-R

Pillow Fight Club

Tomorrow (valentines day). Flinders St steps at 5:37 pm. Comewith your pillow in a bag. At 5:37 pull it out and start fighting. You may not fight with nyone not holding a pillow (unless of course they allow it).

Just passing on an email I received this afternoon. I'll be there with bells on!

Had a jam with the boy today. Went Ok but I need to learn more bass lines. MY fingers are kinda sore but mianly my wrists and left shoulder. Found another easter egg on the Franz DVD - or rather someone on the forum told everyone about it. :)

-R

And another thing...

I've memorised the bass line to 'I'm Your Villain'. And I'm getting callouses on my fingertips. next step: trying to play the bassline without looking at the neck (too much). Rock \m/

It's official: she bats for the other team

...In other words, I've officially been employed by my old workplace as a dish hand (ha, you thought I was going to say something completely differen!). Ok so it's dirty unglamourous hard work but the pay's Ok and I get good hours so I'll live. It's all money isn't it? And I get to see my friend whenevr I work so it's all good. Last night was quite busy, we didn't finish until 11:30. I thought I'd never get through all my dishes (the pass was literally full and overflowing with dishes) but with our super organised system we knocked em over in 10 minutes flat, which was quite satisfying.

Anyway nothing much else to add other than I really need to get out so I can show off my new hair. I haven't gone anywhere except for work since I got coloured.

-R

Best $2.50 I've ever spent

I had another shift as a dishie last night and brought my own rubber gloves. Seriously, the best $2.50 I've ever spent. Well $2.45 if you want to be exact but who's counting? As long as they pay me. I've said it before and I'll say it again, this work is tough! I suppose it's less mentally challenging than waitressing because you're not constantly dealing with customers and shit, but physically it's quite demanding. Tonight I'm taking my speakers so that if the boss leaves before we're finished we can have some tunes to clean up to. Last night we managed to finish a whole half hour earlier than the night before, but it was pretty quiet again. Tonight will be a real test of my skills!

I'm off to brekkie now. And to watch the Big Day In on Channel V. And to stretch some - my physio was mean yesterday and I'm feeling it now.

Oh and correction from the last entry - I don't actually care whether you guys like my hair or not. *I* like. End of story.

-R

New Hair pics

I went to Springvale to get my hair coloured today to complete the 'transformation'. Hope you like.

-R

Come To The Dark Side...

Tonight I spent an evening on the other side of the pass, working as a dish hand at the restaurant where I used to be a waitress. And I have to say, man, that work is bloody hard!!!! I apparently did OK but I reckon I could definitely be faster. I have another shift tomorrow night at the same place, and hopefully this will lead to a job because I'm fucking desperate.

Oh and in brilliant news, my friend who works there as an apprentice chef now loves Franz Ferdinand because of me :) yay

-R

New Haircut (again!)

So I got yet another new haircut. I reckon it looks pretty cool. I just went to Springvale yesterday and asked the girl to do something short. Apparently my type of hair didn't suit the photo I had in mind, so she sdked if she could do something 'creative' and I told her to go for it. I had two 'oh my god what am I/is she thinking!?' moments - the first was when she sectioned off my very long fringe and chopped pretty much all of it off, the second when she took the hair on the top of my head, twisted it around then choppedmost of that off too. It's definitely the most extreme haircut I've had but I love it - quite short and spiky but with a few long wispy bits. Like she said, not many people will have this haircut. Next week or maybe even tomorrow I'll go in and get some 'chunk foils' of highlights. I saw a photo in a magazine at my friend's placelast night where this girl had highlights of really, really pale pink (practically white) in her hair. I'm not usually a pink girl but they were so cool and unusual. That's what I want.

Oh yeah and the haircut cost me $15. I think the colour will be about $60-$70. Yay for Springvale :)

new music for me

Yesterday I 'obtained' from my friend the first Franz CD and the soundtrack to Spamalot. Yay :)

I really like the first CD. I'm already familiar with some of the songs, like Jacqueline (which for me invokes such strong memories of sitting outside the theatre in NYC waiting for spamalot tickets with three hours of slep under my belt after the day with Franz, falling asleep into my bagel and cream cheese). I hadn't heard Michael before and I love it - it's one of my favourites already! Such an awesome song to dance to and so sexy. Alex's vocals are amazing. I saw the video too which is very cool. The band all look extremely hot in it.

Anyway I know it's boring to talk about the weather but I'm really enjoying Melbourne's cool weather right now. Hopefully this means no more hot days until next summer. Today was quite windy though which reminds me to get my hair cut. My fringe is down to my nose :)

-R

Muso joke

Is it sad that I get pretty much all of this joke and find it hilarious, or should I be proud of my theoretical knowledge? Whatever. I love this joke. My friend emailed it to me yesterday - one of the few email jokes I've enjoyed :)

A C, an E-flat, and a G go into a bar. The bartender says, "Sorry, but we
don't serve minors."
So the E-flat leaves, and the C and the G have an open fifth between
them.
After a few drinks, the fifth is diminished and the G is out flat.
F comes in and tries to augment the situation, but is not sharp enough.
D comes into the bar and heads straight for the bathroom saying,
"Excuse
me, I'll just be a second."
Then an A comes into the bar, but the bartender is not convinced that
this
relative of C is not a minor.
The bartender then notices a B-flat hiding at the end of the bar,
causing
him to bach: "Get out now. You're the seventh minor I've found in this
bar
tonight."
The E-flat, not easily deflated, comes back to the bar the next night
in a
three-piece suit with nicely shined shoes.
The bartender (who used to have a nice corporate job until his company
downsized) says, "You're looking sharp tonight, come on in! This could
be
a 'This proves to be the case', as the E-flat takes off the suit, and
everything else, and stands there 'au natural'.
Eventually, the C sobers up, and realises, in horror, that he's under a
rest.
The C is brought to trial, is found guilty of contributing to the
diminution of a minor, and is sentenced to 10 yrs of DS without Coda at
an
upscale correctional facility.
On appeal, however, it is found that C is innocent of any
wrongdoing-even
accidental wrongdoing-and that all accusations to the contrary are
bassless.
The bartender decides, however, that since he's only had tenor so
patrons,
and the soprano out in the bathroom, everything has become altoo much
treble; he needs a rest, and closes the bar.

-R

tear through the city on a saturday night

I went out on a saturday night! yay :)

We went to the mso free concert in the bowl, which was fantastic - Suyeon Kang the solo violinist was amazing. She's 3 years younger than I am, how depressing. I liked the Stravinsky Firebird suite. Then we went to Jarrah on southbank for cocktails then onto the kitten bar on little collins st. to see my friend's friend play keyboard in a band which may have been called King Armadillo or something.they were pretty good, jazz and funk and ambience kinda stuff.

-R

I should not play bass

I apparently have abnormally small hands. Last night I was catching up with friends and when we had tea it came in very nice little china cups so I decided to drink with my little finger sticking out (why did people do this!? It's frickin' hard) and pointed it out to everyone, at which point everyone went:

'OMG, your little finger is so little and cuuuuuuuuuuute!'

So a round of hand size comparison ensued where I found out that I do indeed have abnormally small hands. The only person with hands the same size as me is quite a bit shorter than me. I feel cheated.

I can't even stretch over two frets on the bass.

Maybe I should play piccolo or ukelele instead.

-R

I'm so lucky, lucky lucky (again)

I have a rock and roll story!!!!!! Boy do I ahve a rock and roll story. It involves on scottish rock band, one gorgeous guitarist, and one big dork.

The Age Preview magazine: '[Franz Ferdinand] bring exactly the same showmanship to that tiny stage as they did to the stadium. Kapranos and McCarthy can smile and flirt and make eye contact in a way that would be clearly impossible (or, anyway, insvisible) in a stadium...' How true this was tonight for me, as you are about to find out...

Tonight my boyfriend, brother and I went to the Franz Ferdinand gig. We went down at what we believed was a fairly early hour (5.30 for doors opening at 8pm) so we bought dinner and went down to the Palace to wait. We weren't really sure where to sit given that there's two sets of stairs but luckily we picked the one nearer the front of the queue. We spent the hours chatting with other people and I got to relate my Franz Ferdinand video shoot story (briefly, there's only so many times even I can tell that one!) before they opened the doors. When we went to properly form a line they asked us to move back because they had been there for (much, much) longer, which was fair enough, so we moved further back and stood next to two girls and a guy from WA. One of the guys had a camera so he asked for our emails to send the photos to once we got inside. We all just fitted on the barrier - we were at the very left facing the stage. The support act, Cut Copy, were quite late so we had to find things to amuse ourselves, like mental arithmetic :) I finally managed to figure that 1.3 squared is 1.69. Cut Copy finally came on half an hour late, at 9.15, and they were OK, although I'm not a fan of electronic music, it all sounds the same to me. I brought earplugs with the intention of using them, but took them out in frustration before Cut Copy's set started because they're so damn uncomfortable. So my hearing suffers yet again :) Luckily the break between Cut Copy and Franz Ferdinand (oooo, band alliteration!) was quite short so we weren't kept in suspense long. One of the photographers in front of us took a photo of the set list and showed it to us, so I learned that 'Do You Want To' would be the first song on the list. And what a first song! From the moment Franz Ferdinand stepped onto the stage they blew me away. Not only are they great musicians, they're awesome performers as well and they know what gets a crowd going.

So onto my big story for tonight...

Because of where we were standing, we were right in front of Nick McCarthy, the guitarist, and at one point during a song he came right up to the edge of the stage and smiled directly at me. Now maybe a cooler person under these circumstances may have just smiled back or winked flirtatiously, I don't know, but I'm a complete loser, so instead of being all cool, I grinned back, said 'hello!' and gave him a little wave. Groan indeed. Even I agreed that I'd been a dork when the guy next to me mimicked me after the song. BUT. Apparently the dork act did something for Mr McCarthy, because....

(this needs its own paragraph)

A few songs later - it may have been Take Me Out but I can't remember now - Nick once again came right to the edge of the stage, but this time he jumped down (the Palace stage is quite low and close to the barriers), came right up to me, said 'hello' back and....he kissed me on the cheek!!!! I can't believe it. Nothing like that *ever* happens to me! The girl behidn my brother asked if Nick knew us. No, I was just my usual dorky self, and in some weird and wonderful way, it paid off completely. And best of all, one of the guys from WA who we made friends with and stood next to inside got the whole thing on video and will email it to me, so I can watch it again...and again...and again...

So yes, a marvellous fabulous wonderful stupendously rockin' night was had by all. And now I have a new, equally cool and awesome Franz Ferdinand story to tell!

I'm so lucky, lucky lucky.

Indeed.

-R