Self indulgent crap with flashes of genius

musings

Mon, 05 Nov 2007 13:24:02 GMT

i don't think i've written a livejournal post in about a year or so. i figure this as a safe place to put this, since noone reads it anymore.

anyway, 2007 has been the biggest nothing year of my life. it seems strange, because on paper it seems like a fairly successful, busy year. i left my student life behind and joined the workforce, getting paid a good amount of money to turn up to work 5 days a week. i started/joined 2 new bands and had a pretty good year with the third - released an ep which people seem to think doesn't suck, and went on my first tour interstate. went overseas - new zealand to be exact (not quite as big a trip as my europe trip of last year, but it's still a stamp in the passport). started doing some regular sport stuff to stop myself from turning into a tub of lard - tennis on mondays and netball on thursdays.

and yet... i don't feel like i've moved forward at all this year. i don't feel any sense of accomplishment from anything i've done in 2007. my job doesn't fill me with a sense of fulfillment, if anything i feel like i'm cheating them out of their money. music... well, it's fun and sometimes it can make you feel better for a few minutes. but let's not shit ourselves here, it doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. i'm not jeff mangum or thom yorke or elliott smith, i don't make other people feel better with anything i make. there's no greater reason to continue doing it other than for my own enjoyment. sometimes that enjoyment leaves me for periods. i dont think i've written a full song this year - i've never experienced writer's block until now. actually, i just wrote my first song of the year this past weekend. hopefully that will continue.

i guess that a lot this can essentially come down to the fact that i'm lonely this year. i'm not 'single', but i have all of the bad bits of being single mixed with the bad bits of being in a relationship. i've probably spent around 1.5 months with my girlfriend since last october. it's not enough. furthermore, my loneliness in that respect has made me even more moody and grumpy and mopey than usual, which makes me even less fun to be around than usual. most of my friends these days seem more like casual acquaintances.

i've never really been the best at small talk, but lately i've just been feeling as though everything i could have to say to someone is the most boring, inane thing that anyone could possibly say. actually, i probably feel that way because i'm pretty sure it actually is the truth. i *hate* that the only thing i seem to be able to talk about is music. it shits me beyond belief. i'd really rather talk about pretty much anything else. however, the only alternative i can ever think of is my work, and i *know* that talking about that really *would* be the most boring thing in the world, so thankfully i usually at least stop myself from bringing that up.

you know, i used to be funny (actually, i still can be but seemingly only when i've had half of bottle of red wine).

i really wish that i had the guts to just pick up everything and move to somewhere where i don't know anyone. move overseas, move anywhere. start again from scratch. god knows there's nothing keeping me here. like, literally not a single thing. no girlfriend, no job that i enjoy. my sister lives here but she'd be fine, she's looking to go overseas herself anyway. i doubt any of my friends would miss me for long (which isn't some emo comment about how little my friends like me, moreso that i'm pretty much the worst person in existence in terms of keeping in touch with people over long distances... it's pretty hard to keep missing someone who never returns your emails or makes any effort to get in contact, let alone come and visit).

so... 2008? i have a lot of hope for 2008 - i'm not a pessimist (as much as i might come across as one), i know that things can get much better if i really try to make them so. but i need to change things. i have plans to do just that - but plans are just plans, i need to actually follow through with them in order to effect any change. regarding the job thing, my current plan is to stick out the rest of the year, maybe through to next january/february, and if things aren't looking like they're going to improve then i'll get out of there and look for something that might be more fulfilling. adrian and i have been talking about doing a business project together, and though it would probably fall on it's face that's probably what i need. i need to put myself out there, into a position where i could possibly fail in a very real way. i think this is part of the reason why i've gotten myself into this situation, i'm too worried about failing and looking stupid. i'm starting to see that it's better to fail gloriously than to succeed in a mundane way.

so, this is really just a document of a moment, so that i can come back in 6months or so and see whether or not i've gone and started to fix these problems that i say i have, or whether i'm just spouting shit that i don't have the courage to follow through with. as much as i hope that my friends don't read this (because honestly, what a self pitying load of crap it is), i need to put it in a public place to help me to actually get something done.

if you see me this time next year and i haven't done something to get happy (stupid!) then you have my full permission to quite literally beat some sense into me. i would be eternally grateful.

ok, enough of this. bed time. come see me if you want your 5 minutes back, i'll try to give you something of equal value.

man, i'm really dreading pressing 'post' on this one.

*closes eyes*

*grits teeth*

*pushes button*

Album Journal #2 - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea

Mon, 05 Feb 2007 02:49:36 GMT

So, after a three month break I thought I'd post my second entry in my series (?) of album journals. This one is about an album that could well be my favourite album ever, Neutral Milk Hotel's 'In The Aeroplane Over The Sea'. If there's anyone who is reading this who doesn't know much about Neutral Milk Hotel (?!?), here's a quick rundown of the band and this album: Neutral Milk Hotel is predominantly the project of one Jeff Mangum, though on this album the project was expanded to a 4-man band. It's predominantly 'folk', but a sort of fuzzed out, punked up, psychedelic version of folk, filled out with brass sections, keyboards, synths, banjos (sometimes bowed), zanzithophones, fuzz bass, a huge sounding drumkit played but some crazy kid, and a handful of other weird and wonderful instruments. Over the top of all this is Jeff Mangum's slightly nasal, slightly out-of-tune, but always amazingly emotional voice. He sings about love and life and death and Anne Frank and freaks and religion, and he never EVER makes it sound corny or overwrought or anything other than the most beautiful thing ever.

This is an album that Conan put me onto. I purchased it on his recommendation, and after my first couple of listens I loved about half of the songs on the album (mostly the more up-tempo ones), but found the rest too samey. I put it away for a while, and probably 9months later came back to it. All of a sudden the rest of the album sounded really good too. The lyrics started to seep in. I could appreciate the differences between the two parts of Two Headed Boy.

Ever since then (probably 4-5 years ago? maybe even more?) the album has steadily grown in importance to me, to the point where sometime in the last year it became my favourite album ever. Someone once wrote that if everyone in the world owned this album the world might somehow become a slightly better place. It's a naive thought, but if one album could do it then it would be this one. No other album makes me feel so despairing of humanity and yet so filled with hope and joy of life (except for perhaps Godspeed You! Black Emperor's 'Lift Yr Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven', one of my previous 'favourite albums ever', and surely a future entry in one of these album journals).

Seriously, it's amazing. Every one of the closing 5 songs (from 'Communist Daughter' through to 'Two Headed Boy Part 2') has brought me to tears at least once. You know when people talk about what songs they want played at their funeral? For me it would be 'Ghost' and 'Untitled' played back to back. I wouldnt want everyone to sit down and listen to the meaning of the words (especially during 'Untitled', since it's instrumental) - I'd want people to jump around and let out some energy. They're the sort of songs that fill you with emotion, that make the hairs on your body stand on end and your voice rise in your throat and your limbs flail with abandon.

Here's a video of Neutral Milk Hotel playing 'Ghost' and 'Untitled' live

Of course, part of the mystique of this album is that after its release the band just disappeared. Jeff Mangum became some mythical figure. This means that once you've made your way through this album there's not a lot of other NMH to listen to. There's On Avery Island, the 'official' NMH debut album, which is quite underrated and nearly equal to ITAOTS in many ways (and is worth owning simply for 'Song Against Sex', 'Naomi', 'Gardenhead/Leave Me Alone' and 'Three Peaches'). There's the live recording of 'Little Birds', the only song written after ITAOTS to have surfaced, featuring Mangum's most disturbing lyrics yet (it will make you wish he'd just release some more damn music already!). There's the various demos floating around ('Hype City Soundtrack' being the best, along with 'Beauty', 'Invent Yourself A Shortcake' and the unnamed demos). There's a pre-On Avery Island EP, 'Everything Is'. There's the final NMH release, a live recording of Jeff Mangum playing solo at a place called 'Jittery Joes', which is therefore titled 'Jeff Mangum Live At Jittery Joes' strangely enough.

There's also the other bands that have been influenced by NMH in some way. Firstly, there are the other Elephant 6 bands: The Apples In Stereo, Olivia Tremor Control, Circulatory System, Beulah, Elf Power, The Music Tapes, etc. Most of them are well worth checking out. Then there are all of the bands who have a strong NMH influence or perhaps just a coincedental similarity: Okkervil River, Beirut, Mountain Goats, The Decemberists, Rock Plaza Central, and heaps more. Hell, one of my own bands (Mt Augustus) quite mercilessly rips off NMH from time to time, and I have no qualms with admitting that.

I also wanted to briefly talk about another NMH-related band, A Hawk And A Hacksaw. AHAAH is the band of Jeremy Barnes, that 'crazy kid' drummer from NMH that I mentioned before. Mr Barnes has also played with bands such as Broadcast and Beirut, and AHAAH has a lot of similarities with the latter. It's heavily influenced by Eastern European folk music, and as such is full of accordion and violin and various brass and wind instruments. It's really really good stuff. As is always the case, in their 2006 release 'A Wind Blows' I've found an album that should have been included in my Top 10 (it probably would have landed right in the middle, around #5). I highly recommend picking it up (or downloading it if you're an unscrupulous sort).

Here's a video of A Hawk And Hacksaw playing live. Note the way that Jeremy plays accordion and percussion simultaneously. It's both hilarious and very impressive.

Ok, general update:

I have a job. I work for a company called Intec Billing in the city, on the corner of Adelaide and Edward Streets. They do billing software for telecommunications companies, mostly. I've been there a week. It seems ok, the work I'm doing right now (configuring the software for clients - or at least thats what I'll do once I'm done with my training stuff) isn't the most exciting but I get the feeling they're only putting me there for a relatively short time, so that I can gain some experience with the product before moving me into a more development-focussed role. At least that's what I'm hoping for. I can't see myself sticking around for too long if that's not the case... Anyway, it's good to have some money coming in.

I'm in Perth right now. My mum had her 50th birthday so I came back for that. It was held yesterday, and it was quite good fun. I return to Brisbane on Tuesday.

Last Thursday I went to see Joanna Newsom. It was pretty amazing, although she didnt play with her live band, so that was slightly disappointing. Still, she's such an amazing musician and the harp is such a full sounding and expressive instrument that in the end it didn't really adversely affect the show too any great extent. Joanna seemed really nice and very comfortable on stage - she joked around and talked with members of the audience. And really, you couldn't ask for a much better setlist. She played my two favourite songs from Ys ('Emily', my song of last year, and 'Only Skin'), as well as most of my favourites from The Milk Eyed Mender ('Peach, Plum, Pear', 'The Book of Right On', 'Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie', 'Inflammatory Writ', 'Sadie', 'Bridges and Ballons'). 'Monkey and 'Bear' and 'The Sprout and the Bean' would have been nice, but I feel bad asking for more. Oh, and she received the biggest ovation I think I've ever heard - it pretty much didn't let up between her finishing the main set and her coming back out for an encore.

Music stuff:
- Mt Augustus show at the Columbian Bar on February 15th with The Narcotics. I'm not organising this one in any way (which is a nice change), so I don't know too much about it.
- Fickle Beasts show at Fat Louies on March 9th. We are organising this one, so we should probably get around to asking some other bands to play.
- Pat Elliott and I are joining up with our old friend Adrian Marsh (from ye olde days of Forevergreen) to help him translate his Buildings Melt project into a live entity. I'm really looking forward to this.
- I've been filling in on drums for people lately. I played drums for an A Man Called Son show recently, and might be helping out some other bands in the near future.

That's heaps to talk about for now. Stay well, people.

Top 10 Albums for 2007 (and other stuff)

Sat, 06 Jan 2007 02:57:44 GMT

ok, i think my top 10 albums for the year are now relatively stable. therefore, its time to post them on my lj! (*faint 'woo'*)

10. Mogwai - Mr Beast
Probably the best Mogwai album since Come On Die Young. Although there aren't any of their trademark epics on this album ('We're No Here' comes close though), there are a higher percentage of songs that contain those big dynamic changes that they do so well. Plus, to me they're more successful at writing the short songs than they have been in the past.

9. Ambitious Lovers - Stranger, Can I Touch You?
A really good album from a really good local band. Pretty lo-fi (though probably less so than their previous EPs), but in the best way. One of the most emotionally affecting albums I've ever heard anyone from Brisbane produce (or anywhere else, for that matter).

8. Lily Allen - Alright, Still
A lot of people are really surprised when I say that I like Lily Allen. I guess that I'm a bit surprised myself. Mostly I love the really colourful production and songs. It's just really catchy, fun stuff.

7. The Drones - Gala Mill
I saw The Drones at The Zoo earlier this year. It was one of the most aggressive and raw shows I've seen. On record The Drones are still aggressive and raw. This album is no different. Songs like 'Jezebel' and 'Sixteen Straws' show how good this band is, and also the range their capable of.

6. Beirut - Gulag Orkestar
A 19 year old American kid travels around Europe for a while, decides that he loves Balkan traditional music, goes back to America and records this album in his bedroom. The drummer from Neutral Milk Hotel joins his band. Bloggers go crazy over the album. The thing is, it IS really good. I don't know if the band will have much longevity (they seem like something of a one-trick pony), but this album is really great. Debates over authenticity be damned (and really, arguing over whether or not the kid is being 'authentic' to the music he's emulating is kind of beside the point).

5. Islands - Return to the Sea
I never got into The Unicorns. I heard that one song that JJJ used to play a lot, and it never really interested me so I never pursued it any further. Maybe I should, because this album is really really good. Just for something different, it's an interesting and somewhat 'quirky' indie pop album by some Canadians who feel the need to fill the album with a plethora of instruments. And just like with all of those other similarly minded Canadian bands (Arcade Fire, Wolf Parade, Broken Social Scene, Stars, etc etc) it's a pretty successful strategy.

4. Shearwater - Palo Santo
Shearwater have long been the poor cousin of Okkervil River. The fact that Will Sheff (the main guy from Okkervil) sang on half of Shearwater's songs always made the two bands difficult to differentiate, despite the differences in mood and focus (Shearwater always being much more understated than the more 'rock' Okkervil). On this album Jonathan Meiburg took over all singing and songwriting duties (although Sheff still helped out to a large extent), and the improvement is huge. All of a sudden this is a unique band with an identifiable sound. That sound is sparse, dry and subtle, but at times also menacing. It reminds me of Talk Talk's last two albums, but with a much folkier, 'rootsier' bent. Meiburg has a superb voice, and for the first time he really shows it off. When raises his voice to a yell after the quiet intro to 'Le Dame Et La Licorne', well, it's pretty spine-tingling stuff.

3. Turnpike - Humans Find Patterns
Most of the albums in my list this year are somewhat 'folky'. Turnpike are NOT folky. Turnpike rock. They FUCKING rock. Turnpike are pretty much the best band in Brisbane. This past year they finally released their first album. It's really really good. I guess their sound isn't for everyone, but it's certainly for me. It's such a shame that these guys play to such small crowds every month. It seems like its somewhat obligatory to pay lip-service to Turnpike, but it also seems like half of the people who profess to love them are only saying so because they're such a local institution. It pains me to see them play to an audience who seem to be waiting for the latest 'hot' noisey guitar band to play next (who often seem to forget that Turnpike have awesome SONGS behind their noise).

ps: I couldn't find a copy of their actual album cover, so that pic will have to do.

2. Joanna Newsom - Ys
I liked the Milk Eyed Mender, but I didn't *love* it. I loved many of the songs from it, but as an album I was never totally smitten with it. I'm pretty smitten with Ys. It takes elements of the previous album and expands them beyond measure - whether or not that's a good thing is up to personal opinion. Personally, I love what Newsom has done on Ys. Her voice is far more expressive than on MEM, and she's reduced some of her more grating vocal quirks without losing what made her so unique. The orchestral backing is, to my ears, perfectly complimentary to her harp-playing and songwriting, never overtaking the songs. Her lyrics are equally as good as they were on MEM (and really, let's stop worrying about the fact that she uses the word 'thee' *once* on the entire album... hell, it's only used because it rhymes).

Also, 'Emily' is the song of the year.

1. Danielson - Ships
I feel weird saying that this is my #1 for the year. Really, any of the albums in my top 5 could be placed at #1, they're so close. 2007 didn't seem to be a year for real 'standout' albums (or at least not for me). But, as the saying goes, there can only be one. And on this particular day its Ships.

The album famously features contributions from Deerhoof and Sufjan Stevens, and I guess that's as accurate a description of Danielson's sound that you'll find: mix Deerhoof's crazy noise-pop with the folk tendencies and huge instrumentation of Sufjan and you get Danielson (or at least this incarnation of Danielson). There are some amazing pop songs here: 'Did I Step On Your Trumpet?', 'Two Sitting Ducks', 'Kids Pushing Kids', 'Bloodbook On The Halfshelf'. Personally my pick from the album is the opener, 'Ship, The Majestic Suffix' - it just builds and builds and builds, yet it's all over in about two minutes. Awesome stuff.

So that's my top 10. Also worthy of mention are these albums, some of which I simply didn't listen to enough to fully appreciate:
Sunset Rubdown 'Shut Up, I Am Dreaming', Marissa Nadler 'The Saga of Mayflower May', Bluebottle Kiss 'Doubt Seeds', Sonic Youth 'Rather Ripped', Casiotone For The Painfully Alone 'Etiquette', and a bunch of others.

Um... general update?

I went back to Perth to visit my parents for Christmas and New Years. It was nice. I did stuff like going to the beach, playing tennis, eating LOTS, going to the New Years Day races (we won money!), watching the cricket. It was nice.

I'm on the dole. I've been applying for lots of jobs - I'm currently in the middle of the interview process for software engineering jobs in Brisbane, Sydney and Canberra. I guess that I'd prefer to stay in Brisbane, but if a really good job comes along elsewhere then I suppose I'd be a fool to turn it down. And really, there's not much keeping me here. I talk to most of my friends over the internet (I rarely see them face-to-face), and most of my spare time is spent writing and recording music. I can do that stuff anywhere. And maybe moving will get me out of this general malaise I've been in for the last year or so.

Ok, last thing: Mt Augustus are playing on Monday at Rics. It will be the first Mt Augustus show since August, and potentially the last one for a fair while. Half the band quit in December, and although I don't hold anything against them for that AT ALL, I'm now starting to remember why my other bands broke up after people quit - teaching new people a whole set's worth of music is a real pain. Mt Augustus won't die though, at long as there's Pat Elliott and myself (or even just myself) then it will continue.

So anyway, we're playing on Monday at Rics. A Man Called Son is opening, and I'll be playing drums for them on a few songs. After that will be Mt Augustus, and it will probably be a mix of solo songs from me and two-piece songs with Pat. There might also be a few full band songs, but we're not sure about that as yet.

Poster!

FYI

Tue, 05 Dec 2006 12:14:40 GMT

new band.
'fickle beasts' (another bad band name).
www.myspace.com/ficklebeasts
first gig on this saturday (9th) @ fat louies (in the city, above gilhooleys on albert st).
other bands = TURNPIKE and DEL TORO, so even if we suck the other bands are awesome.
im fairly sure it's free.
you should come.
poster!

the hipsters are coming!

Tue, 14 Nov 2006 13:48:42 GMT

this is something i wrote today that i wanted to put here so i dont forget it. i was talking about the myth of the 'indie hipster' and people who seem to think that anything they dont like that others do is only popular (even when that 'popularity' is in such a small circle of people) because of the influence of the 'indie hipsters':

seriously people, these 'hipsters' that you so hate dont exist. theyre not real. people dont really pretend to love certain music because it 'makes them cool'. it doesnt happen. the opposite happens, where people profess to hate certain music because doing so 'makes them cool'. but pretending to love something? thats too hard. theres too many ways to get caught out. someone could ask you your favourite song from the album, and then you have to quickly do a google search and hope that the song youve just stated as your favourite isnt actually an 8second long A chord played on an organ. because then youre fucked. its much easier to vehemently deny that certain musicians have any talent or relevancy. you dont need a compelling argument then, you just need to say 'she cant sing!' or 'its all so pretentious' or 'what, does she think shes too good for a chorus?'.

addendum: and when i say 'they dont exist', well, obviously they do, but certainly not in the numbers that people seem to think. honestly, that sort of person is so rare, and generally so easy to see through. i dont think they hold any real sway over the opinions of anyone with half a brain.

note: the discussion was originally about the new joanna newsom album, where i was arguing that theres no such thing as a band thats popular solely because of the influence of 'the hipsters'. additionally, im talking more about international bands than local ones.

ps: today i bought the 33 1/3 book about the making of neutral milk hotel's 'in the aeroplane over the sea'. ive finished it already (its only very small). i think ill probably re-read it in the next few days.

pps: the new deerhoof album leaked. its really good.

laura veirs

Mon, 06 Nov 2006 15:22:09 GMT

so, i was just browsing through myspace and randomly thought "i wonder if laura veirs' page has anything interesting on it?". and wouldnt you know it, she's touring here in january! she's playing the zoo on january 19!!!

im totally going to try to get mt augustus the support. i dont even know how to go about applying yet, but im going to do it! there's probably around a 5% chance we'll get it (if that), but thats still 5% more than 0%.

Album Journal #1 - The For Carnation

Sun, 05 Nov 2006 10:20:01 GMT

so, i thought that id start writing up something of a journal where i talk about my favourite albums, seeing as this lj thing is getting a bit dusty (and i have nothing better to do at the moment). to start things off, i thought id talk about...

The For Carnation - The For Carnation

the for carnation is the solo project of brian mcmahon (lead singer from slint). although on each of his releases he has been backed by some form of band (featuring members of slint, tortoise, etc) he is the only permanent member.

the for carnation continues on from slint's 'spiderland' album, offering twisted stories delivered through half sung / half spoken vocals, backed by skeletal guitar lines. however, where slint often kept the volume low in order to make their loud distorted parts even more jarring, the for carnation keep the volume down pretty much permanently. as much as you might long for that sudden burst of noise, this band is never going to give it to you.

their self titled album is their 3rd release (after the 'fight songs' EP and debut full-length, 'marshmallows'). i guess that its sound can best be described as the mellower parts of slint (eg: washer, don aman) mixed with elements of trip-hop and tortoise-esque post rock. the music usually consists of repetitive guitar parts underscored by a throbbing, hypnotic bassline and jazzy drums. all around are effects laden keyboards, organs and assorted noises. and through it all comes mcmahon's low, creepy vocals (and one guest vocal appearance from kim deal, sounding completely unlike her usual energetic self).

this album sounds like 3am in the morning. it's dark. it's scary. it's deeply unsettling. it's the sort of thing that you put on when you've just gotten back from a night out and want to listen to something for an hour before going to sleep, but 'kid a' seems like too cheery a prospect.

and then, you get to the last song, 'moonbeams'. while it contains the same musical elements as the rest of the album, it changes moods from 'this is creeping me out' to 'this is moving me to tears'. it's 9 minutes of a repeated 3 chord progression. there's some sort of bubbling synth underneath it all, there are violins, there's the usual rumbling bass. it travel through peaks and valleys for 7minutes, before rising up and making you think that finally, finally the music will erupt in some sort of crescendo. but it doesn't, it falls back down and slowly fades out, instrument by instrument, over the last two-and-a-half minutes.

i highly recommend this album if you're into this sort of stuff. its not the sort of thing you reach for every day, but sometimes it's the only album that can satisfy a certain craving. i've uploaded the song 'moonbeams' from the album. i'm not sure whether or not im doing the song (and album) a disservice by separating it; somehow i think that the effect of the song will probably be lessened if its not preceded by the other 5 songs on the disc. on the other hand, its an amazing song any way you look at it. so my advice is, if you think that this album sounds like it could be for you, go and buy (or download) it. if you're not sure, download the song.

The For Carnation - Moonbeams
ps: this song recently made it into my 'top 10 gut-wrenchingly sad songs', as requested by charlie.

the voice

Sun, 05 Nov 2006 03:04:41 GMT

last night i went to a party. ive had a cold and a sore throat lately, so this morning i woke up and my voice was all croaky and awesome. i sound like robert from 'everybody loves raymond'. i think im going to go and record some vocals for some songs now, in the hope that i'll sound like johnny cash or something.

Europe tour photos

Fri, 13 Oct 2006 04:03:04 GMT

Ok, so I'm finally going to post some of my favourite photos from the Europe trip, and I might talk about some of the things I saw. We'll see how long this post goes for... it will almost definitely be another one of my novels. At least I have something substantial and interesting to talk about this time.

If you want to have a look at more photos, go to http://s95.photobucket.com/albums/l129/mrwarandieboy/2006%20Europe/

Ok, so the first thing I did when I got into London after 30 hours on aeroplanes and in airports (after meeting up with Helen in Piccadilly) was jump on a train to Edinburgh (in Scotland). We were going up there to catch the last few days of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (don't ask my why they dont call it the Fringe Festival, I dont know). After an additional 5hrs of riding in a train we arrived in Edinburgh. It's a really beautiful city, full of wonderful old buildings, with a castle overlooking a park in a valley in the centre of town. It just so happened that Belle & Sebastian were playing in said park the day that we arrived, so after dropping our bags off at our B&B, we went in and watched them do their soundcheck for about an hour. We had plans to bo back into town that evening to see their proper show, but I'd pretty much crashed and burned by about 5pm. Helen was lucky to even wake me at around 8:30pm to go and get some dinner.

Belle & Sebastion with Edinburgh Castle in the background.

Edinburgh Castle.

The next day Helen and I went out and got into the festival. We grabbed tickets in the morning for three comedy acts: an improv midday show in a small bar, famous Edinburgh comedian Danny Bhoy in a big auditorium, and obligatory Aussie Corinne Grant in a side-room of a large complex with about 15 other people. All three were pretty brilliant, but I think my favourite was the improv duo - they were genius (and their accents weren't overly thick, so I could understand them just fine). They did 5 or 6 'games' that each went for about 10 minutes. My favourite game was where the comedians were given three things that they had to work into a scene. Then when the scene was done, they asked the audience for two movie/theatre genres. They then replayed the scene in the two given genres; our audience's selections were 'Japanese Anime' and 'Zombie Vaudeville' (which was actually a combination of two separate genres, since they didn't think plain old 'Zombie' was difficult enough). Zombie Vaudeville was absolutely hilarious - they would be acting out the scene as zombies, when they'd break into these slow motion dances with the dodgiest rhyming songs, all while still being zombies.

Zombie Vaudeville.

After Edinburgh we met up with our tour group in London and headed off on our 25 day trip of Europe. Usually the groups around 30-45 people, but we only had 21 in ours, so there was lots of space on the bus and things were a lot more manageable in general. I didn't know it at the start of the trip, but we had a really great group. I was worried beforehand that there would be some real dickheads that I'd be stuck with for a month (you know, your stereotypical travelling Aussie bonehead), but every single person was really nice and very easy to get along with, including the guides. So if any of those people read this, cheers!

The Cliffs of Dover from the ferry to Calais.

The first place we went to was Paris. We went for a drive in the bus around the city, taking in the major sights and learning about the history (this was fairly standard practice whenever we got to a new place). Seeing things like the Eiffel Tower and the Arc du Triomphe for real was a pretty amazing experience.

Ferris Wheel at the Louvre.

The next morning we were supposed to be at the bus by 8am to head into town. However, I slept through Helen's alarm, and she went straight back to sleep after turing it off, so we didn't wake up until 8:10am. We thought everyone had left so we were getting dressed pretty slowly, when we received an annoyed knock on the door demanding to know why we weren't on the bus with everyone else. Needless to say, we were pretty sheepish when we got on the bus.

First stop, the Louvre. We saw the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, and countless other priceless paintings and sculptures.

Notre Dame Cathedral.

Muthafuckin' French Snakes on a Muthafuckin' French Plane

Arc du Triomphe. We climbed up the top of this.

Eiffel Tower. I didn't quite make it to the top of this... I could only get to the 2nd level (of three levels) before my fear of heights took over. Helen went to the top though.

Eiffel Tower at night - taken from the cruise on the River Seine we took that evening.

The next day we left Paris and headed to Lauterbrunnen, in the Swiss Alps.

O RLY? NO WAI!

Interlaken.

The valley in which we stayed.

The day after that we caught the train up to the top of the Jungfraujoch, which is the tallest mountain in Europe (3.5km high). The Jungfrau was absolutely stunning. The air was so thin, I'd never experienced anything like it. I got it into my head that I wanted to walk over to a restaurant that was about a kilometre or so away, slightly up the mountain from the main tourist area through thick snow. Helen wasn't too keen but I dragged her along anyway. About 1/3 of the way there we were pretty stuffed, the lack of air and difficulty in walking through snow was taking its toll. However, I really wanted to get to this restaurant, so we came up with a plan of attack: we would walk about 20m at a time, then take a 30second break to let our legs stop burning and get our breath back, then we'd go another 20m, and so on. It took us about 45min to go that 1km. At the end we both felt very proud, and had celebratory Swiss hot chocolates.

Train ride to Jungfraujoch

View from the mountain.

Huskies!

A massive crevice.

Helen and I at the end of our climb.

Hot chocolate.

Ice carving exhibit underground in the mountain. The exhibit was literally dug into the ice - all the walls and floors were ice.

My favourite photo from the entire trip - from the train on the way back down the mountain.

After Lauterbrunnen we went to Avignon for one night. Avignon is a town where the Popes (or anti-Popes as they were known, due to their corrupt nature) had their headquarters for a while, many moons ago.

We saw this wedding procession. EDIT: I have been told that this was actually a wine festival procession. It is true that there was a wine festival just up the hill from this chapel. However, there was also a couple who had just got married and followed the procession up the hill. Whether the procession was for the wedding or the wine festival, I don't know. Apparently the flags are representative of many of the nearby regions of Italy.

After Avignon we headed to Nice, stopping via Cannes.

A Cannes beach, covered with Queensland sand. They ship it over, since the French beaches are usually made of pebbles.

A view of the mansions on the coastline on the drive from Nice to Monaco.

The entire group dressed up for a night in the casinos of Monaco.

The next stop was Pisa, on our way to Florence. The drive through Tuscany on the way there was great.

Helen, Myself and some tower.

The Duomo, in Florence. Our tour guide, Rae, was caught by the local tourist police just near here. In much of Italy it's illegal to be a tour guide (as opposed to a tour leader - the difference is that a guide tells you what you're seeing, where a leader just takes you from place to place) unless you have a license, which of course they only give to locals.

The tomb of Michaelangelo in the Santa Croce. This cathedral also houses the tombs of Galileo, Dante and Macchiavelli, among others.

Next up was Rome... wow, Rome.

Rome was probably my favourite place on the trip (along with Berlin and perhaps Amsterdam). Our first afternoon/evening in Rome was spent on a bit of a walking tour around the major sites in the city centre.

One place we visited that I don't have photos of (not allowed) was a chapel just outside of 'central' Rome. It used to be located elsewhere, but had to be relocated. Hundreds of monks were buried in the old churchgrounds, so they dug them up and moved them to the new site. However, they didnt just dig a hole and dump in the remains at the new site - instead, they created statues and ornaments out of the remains. If you go into the 'basement' of the chapel you can see these remains. They've been set up in a number of alcoves along a longish hallway. In each alcove is a scene featuring skeletons in various poses, walls covered with skulls and other bones, and various bit and pieces all created from bone. even the lamps that hang from the ceiling are made out of bone. The freakiest thing there is right at the end - in the very last alcove there is a skeleton attached to the roof... this skeleton has a scythe and set of scales (still made out of bones). It's the grim reaper. Below him is a plague that reads: 'What you are now, we once were. What we are now, you will one day be'.

Trevi Fountain. There is drinkable water here that supposedly turns you into a virgin again. Most of us had a drink.

The Pantheon.

The dome of the Pantheon. This was once covered with bronze, and the rest of the building covered in marble. However, that was all stripped to decorate other monuments, such as St Peter's Cathedral.

Raphael's Tomb.

Piazza Venezia, otherwise known as the wedding cake.

A little building known as the colosseum.

The next morning we were dropped of nice and early just around the corner from the entrance to the Vatican City Museums. We went inside and saw many many famous works by artists such as Raphael and Michaelangelo, including the famous painting on the roof of the Sistine Chapel.

This is a self portrait that Raphael painted into one of his paintings in the apartments in the Vatican City.

We were lucky enough to be able to join a free guided tour around St Peter's Cathedral. The guide was an American History Masters holder (as in, and American who had a Masters in History, not someone who held a Masters in American History, because that wouldn't have been very useful to us at all) who had been doing the tours for about 5years, so he know his stuff.

St Peter's Cathedral. This was probably the single most awe-inspiring thing I saw on the trip.

The inside of St Peter's. To give you an idea of the scale, the gold writing you can see above the arch on the left of the photo is 2m tall.

Michaelangelo's Pieta in the cathedral. It's behind a bullet-proof glass barrier because some Hungarian fellow attacked it with a hammer in 1972. In between him starting the attack and people managing to drag him off a lot of the pieces he had hit off were picked up and stolen by tourists. However, after a public plea pretty much everything was returned.

90 tonnes worth of bronze. Made by the italian sculpture Bernini.

The dome of St Peter's. Again, to give an idea of scale, the characters at the base of the dome are about 4m tall, and are elongated so that they appear to be in correct proportion when viewed from the floor.

We then went on a guided tour of the Colosseum and Palantine Hill, which is the location of the birthplace of Rome.

Arc of Constantine.

The inside of the Colosseum.

The birthplace of Rome.

Part of the Roman Forums.

We also went on a day trip to Pompei during our stay in Rome.

Here's a picture that was uncovered in a brothel. There's a whole series of them.

This is a painting that is located right at the entrance to a large house. The owners of the house were brothers who had made their money through being merchants - they were 'new money' and liked to show off. Hence, one of the brothers decided that he wanted everyone to know how well hung he was. Pompei was a very sexually aware society, as you can probably tell. It was a port town, after all.

A petrified body. Well, you'd be pretty scared too if a volcano blew up a few miles from you

Mt Vesuvius.

After Rome we headed to Venice...

...although we stopped off at Verona on the way there, and saw Juliet's Balcony (from Romeo & Juliet).

The Grande Canal in Venice.

Helen, Bronson, Naomi and myself on a Gondola Ride.

"I only sing in the shower, or when making love" - direct quote.

St Mark's Square and Basilica, with protected pidgeons.

Penis pasta.

Next was Austria. First we spent two nights in St Johanns, where we had a bit of a rest in the midst of all the touring (although we did have some fun tobogganing down a mountainside). Then it was on to Vienna, via at Salzbury (to have at look at Mozart's Birthplace).

Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna. It had some beautiful gardens, plus a maze. Unfortunately we didn't have time to go through it.

The group at the palace.

Austrian Parliament. A bit nicer than ours.

I really like this photo. It was a freaky looking fountain near the Hofburg palace, featuring Athena (a Greek goddess).

Helen and I went to the Natural History Museum in Vienna. It was awesome, and I was like a little kid in the dinosaur exhibit. This is an Allosaurus.

Mr Fischer, who owns and runs the Old Viennese Schnapps Museum & Factory. He was hilarious and so nice (favourite quote I can remember: "this one is great for parties, even when there's no party"). They actually made a type of Schnapps called 'Vienna Gold', which had real gold flecks in it. They also made Absinthe, which I tried a bit of (and then tried again a few days later at a bar).

Prague was our next stop. It was a beautiful old city.

The first night we were there I was snoring a lot, since I was getting over a cold and the beds weren't the most comfortable, so instead of keeping everyone else awake I decided to go for a walk at around 5am, while it was still dark. It was kind of scary at first, because we were staying on the edge of the city, right next to a large lake with old abandoned buildings around it, remnants of communist rule. However, soon it became quite beautiful as the sun started to appear. I got this wonderful sunrise photo, which is my other favourite photo from the trip.

Elderly fisherman at the lake.

This is an astronomical clock in the centre of Prague.

During the day we went up to the Palace on the top of a large hill across from central Prague - this is a view from the top of that hill. Inside the palace we saw a concert performed by a trio of piano, violin and flute. The flutist was probably one of the most stunning women ive ever seen. The actual music was also very enjoyable - they played music from Mozart, Vivaldi and many more composers.

After Prague was Berlin, which was probably the most emotional place we visited, due to the fact that it was the scene of such recent horror, and it was amazing to see the evidence of a country of people trying to come to terms with that.

Berlin Wall. There are bits of the wall all throughout the central area of Berlin. The Germans are trying to ensure that the remaining sections of the wall are protected to provide a reminder of their history. Some of the paintings on the wall are quite uplifting.

In the morning of our first day in Berlin we went on a guided tour of central Berlin, where all of the major historical landmarks were pointed out. It was probably my favourite activity in the entire trip. It was a truly emotional experience. The above photo was taken at the site of Hitler's bunker, where he committed suicide toward the end of WWII. There is pretty much nothing left of any of the Nazi Party buildings - they were all destroyed in the war anyway, so when it came to rebuild the city the Germans simply demolished what was left behind and built over it. Therefore, there is no memorial at the site of Hitler's death, as the German's didn't want to create some sort of shrine for neo-nazis. There's simply a little board that explains what happened there years ago. The actual bunker still exists underground - its too massive to destroy and remove. The apartment buildings behind it are where the old Nazi Headquarters used to be - a massive building that was about half a kilometre long. You wouldn't have any idea of any of these things unless you knew what to look for, theres no indication at all that this area used to be the centre of such atrocities.

Mere metres from Hitler's Bunker is the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe. It's simply a grid of a bit over 2000 grey stone blocks. You can walk down amongst the blocks - the ground dips down as you go further in, until the tops of the blocks are a few feet above your head. Even though there might be 100 people in there at the same time as you, because you can only see down one row of the grid at any time it can feel very lonely. The blocks aren't perfectly straight and in line with each other, and the ground is uneven, which makes thing seem even more uncomfortable.

This place was the one place that affected me the most. To be totally honest, I became quite upset in there. It's difficult not to think about the horrors that went on 60 years ago, and to also think about your own loved ones. When we exited the memorial I had to stay away from the rest of the group for a bit while I composed myself.

I remember watching a television show about a year ago where this Jewish-Australian comedian went on a pilgrimage to Auschwitz. When he got there he was pretty much overcome with emotion. I remember doubting whether simply being somewhere could have provoked such a response in me - now I don't doubt it at all. I think if I'd gone to an actual concentration camp my reaction would have been similar, Jewish or not. My one regret from my trip is that I didn't get to visit a concentration camp. I'll have to go back one day.

Anyway, back to the trip.

This is a statue that was destroyed during the liberation of the city. It located outside one of the ex-Nazi buildings (one of the few still remaining). Next to this building is the 'Topography of Terror' exhibit, which details the rise and actions of the SS, and also talks about the Germans who opposed the Nazis. It also has an exhibit about the Nuremberg Trials.

Here is Checkpoint Charlie (or at least a replica of the original Checkpoint Charlie). This was the only point at which civilians from the West could enter Eastern Berlin - civilians from the East could not visit the West. There's an exhibit next to this that explains the history of communist Germany. It also details some of the escapes that were made (or attempted) by Eastern Berliners.

Brandenburg Gate.

The Reichstag (German Parliament). Hitler never actually set foot inside the Reichstag as Chancellor, as it was burnt down right after he came to power (some people believe it was the Nazi party that started the fire, as they used its destruction to their advantage to gain more power) - this is something of a source of pride for the German people, that he was never legitimitely elected and never spoiled their democratic home.

Those crazy Germans.

The final major stop on the tour was Amsterdam, a city famous for its drugs and sex industry. However, it offers so much more than that. It's an absolutely stunning city, probably the most beautiful that I saw (with the possible exception of Paris). It's also rich in history and culture... and drugs and sex.

On the first morning we went for a ride around Amsterdam, out to some parklands on the outskirts of the city centre.

After that we went for a walk around the city, past many of its beautiful canals.
Helen and I went to the Van Gogh museum, which was thoroughly interesting. We also went to the Anne Frank Museum, which was once again somewhat emotional. In fact, I got very emotional when this American guy was talking on the phone while we were watching a movie of Otto Frank (Anne's father) talking about receiving Anne's diary after the war, and his battle to continue on after his entire family was murdered. One lady asked this American to please take his conversation outside as it was disrespectful. He grudgingly left, but not before quite loudly saying into his phone "yeah, I just got asked to leave... ah, I really don't care". I was furious at that remark, and so turned around and loudly told him what I thought of him before storming off. Crude, yes, I admit that. But I was pretty livid at the time.

I should probably also mention the drugs and sex stuff. Yes, we did go to the Red-Light District. It was interesting, and smaller than I was expecting. The group went to a 'sex show' in one of the venues there. No, I don't feel bad for going - these people are all legal, registered workers who get paid a good wage and, from what I could see, didn't have any problems doing what they did. On the contrary, the majority of them seemed to enjoy the attention and the performance aspect of the show. The prostitute booths were a bit different, the girls (or variations thereof) there didn't seem quite so enthusiastic, although I guess that sitting in a small room for hours on end probably isn't very exciting.

As for the drugs, we did go to a 'coffee shop'. Helen and I tried a 'space muffin'. To be honest, it was a waste of money. We didn't feel anything, and since we didn't want to drink after eating it we weren't allowed to stay in any of the clubs, so we were basically forced to head back home. Meh.

The last night in Amsterdam was spent on a cruise through the canals. I have heaps of photos of this night - check the photobucket account, pages 7 and 8.

Bronson tries his luck with Flic.

Sunny has gas?

Kang is a cool mofo.

That pretty much brought us to the end of the Europe tour.

The sun sets on a wonderful trip (driving back to London).

With Helen and I on our own again, we set about exploring part of Britain. Here's some highlights:

Buckingham Palace.

Changing of guards at Buckingham Palace.

Westminster Abbey.

Helen in front of Big Ben / Parliament.

Stonehenge, one of the highlights of Britain. Despite what people say about the atmosphere being ruined by the road that goes right past it, I still found it to be quite eery.

We also went back up to Edinburgh for a few days to see more of the actual sites and history of the place. We had a lovely rainy & misty day for our tour of the Scottish Highlands, which is perfect.

Hamish, the Scottish Highland Cattle/Cow.

Loch Ness. No sightings of monsters.

Nelson Monument in Edinburgh.

We went out to Stratford-Upon-Avon to see William Shakespeare.

Where Bill was born.

Where Bill is now (Holy Trinity Church, he has his grave inside the chapel).

Monument. I like this photo.

There's also a really cool butterfly farm in Stratford-Upon-Avon. Who would've thought? They also had some cool spiders and scorpions. Once again, I was transformed into a little kid.

Before I left Europe we spent the day at the Tower of London.

This is the infamous 'Watergate' at the tower. If you entered via this gate in the past then in most cases the only time you would be leaving is on the way to your execution.

The White Tower.

The Tower Bridge.

And thats pretty much it. Hopefully you enjoyed the photos and stories. I'm sure I've forgotten lots of interesting things that I saw, but I think that I covered the major points.

Red sun in Hong Kong

europe 3

Wed, 13 Sep 2006 09:34:55 GMT

places ive been to since the last post:

pompei - old, dusty, petrified bodies, drawings of prostitutes, large appendages
venice - gondolas, canals, etc

oh, i forgot to mention in my previous post that when we were walking around rome we stopped off at this old church (actually, we stopped off at a lot of old churches, but this one was particularly interesyting). the monks from this particular church had made a shrine underneath the main hall where they had all of these ornaments and statues made out of the skeletons of dead monks. a few years ago (ie: early last century) the monks' previous church had to be demolished, so they dug up all of the bones of the monks that were burried on the churchgrounds and transported them to the site of the new church. instead of just throwing them back in the ground, though, they decided to turn them into lamps and pillars and statues and stuff. theres even a grim reaper thats made out of bones, holding a scythe and scales. beneath him is a plaque that says 'what you are now, we once were. what we are now, you will one day be.'

and st peters church in the vatican is the most beautiful and amazing building ive ever seen.

ps: im currently in st johanns (austria)

europe 2

Thu, 07 Sep 2006 20:03:45 GMT

im still in europe. currently in rome. its pretty awesome. today i looked around the central area of rome (saw the coloseum, the pantheon, etc). tomorrow im going back in to look at thing a bit more in-depth, and to see the vatican city.

since i last updated, ive been (via cannes) to nice (dirty, rocky beach) and florence (beautiful, michelangelo, leonardo da vinci, galileo, donatello, domes on cathedrals, heat, tombs, statue of david, musical instruments museum).

next im going to pompei, then to venice, then onwards.

gotta go now. bye!

europe

Fri, 01 Sep 2006 16:12:46 GMT

im in europe. currently switzerland. its pretty awesome. today i went to the highest peak in all of europe (jungfraujoch). i was about 3.5km high. lots of snow. not a lot of oxygen. a 1.5km treck up the mountain to a cafe took about an hour, because we had to stop every 50metres to get our breaths back.

so far ive been to edinburgh (fringe festival, danny bhoy (comedian), corrine grant, improv comedians = zombie vaudeville, castles, old buildings) and paris (eiffel tower, arc de triomph, louvre, seine, crepes, old buildings, napoleon, sleeping through alarm on first morning of tour). ive also technically been in london, but havent really seen much of that particular city. ill see a bit when i get back from my europe tour.

i get back in october. more detailed reports to come (with photos having to wait until i get back, because i didnt bring my usb cable).

cya.

BORED

Sat, 19 Aug 2006 04:55:58 GMT

i am so. incredibly. bored. thank god im going away soon. i need to get out of this house.

mt augustus show on wednesday was mediocre at best. on the bright side, we have *lots* of eps left over.

shortest ever lj post for me.

Mon, 14 Aug 2006 08:13:06 GMT

here's a cut-and-paste from the mt augustus myspace

So...

Wednesday night is the night of our appearance on the Straight Out Of Brisbane Festival (SOOB). We're playing the 'Lucky Dip' with Dick Desert, Smile & Marlinchen. We're on at 9:20, its $5 entry. You should come. It will be the last show we'll play for a few months (I'm going away).

We have an EP / demo thing that will be available on the night. It will contain 5 songs (most likely). I'm still making the cases - currently I'm gluing together the main bits of the cases (*lj note* this is now done). Tomorrow I'll be printing up inserts and stuff, which I'll then have to glue onto the rest of the case. I'll post some pictures when they're done. We won't have many available, so if you want one then ask us early on in the evening.

The EP consists of songs that, for the most part, wouldn't fit on a 'proper' release. Either the recordings are rough, or they're older songs that we're kind of 'over', or they're covers. However, they're good enough to be released in some form, and we didn't want them to sit on my hard-drive gathering virtual dust. Think of this EP as us cleaning out the shelves in preparation for something that's a lot more substantial in the not-too-distant future.

So if you want one of these EP things you'd better come to the show on Wednesday. There's only about 20 of them, and I may not want to make any more of them up afterwards.

I'll probably upload one of the songs to Myspace in the next day or so.

Hope to see some of you there.
Cam

btw

Fri, 28 Jul 2006 15:08:21 GMT

i dont really write this journal with other people in mind. its mostly so that i can come back in a year or so and think 'i remember writing that'... or not. so if you saw my last post and thought 'im not fucking reading that, its too long!' then dont worry, i dont expect anyone to.

various things, with diversions into stuff

Fri, 28 Jul 2006 02:42:37 GMT

ok, lj update time. the last one i did was before the jugglers gig, so i'll start there... a long lj update? probably.

after sitting around outside jugglers for about 45min or more, we finally realised that the gig was *upstairs* (there was an exhibit downstairs that meant the gig couldnt be held there), and that people were waiting for us to arrive so that we could soundcheck. anyway, we lugged all of our gear up there and looked at the incredibly tiny area in the corner that had been allocated as the stage. after realising that there was no way we could fit in that area, it was enlarged by about 20%. we set up for soundcheck and just managed to squeeze ourselves into the stage area. the venue was really cool, blankets had been laid all over the wooden floor, with pillows, candles and various other bits and pieces decorating the room. it was like playing in someone's (very arty) lounge room.

eventually the night started properly. the other bands were all really good: shiver like timber was pretty incredible, as im starting to see is customary for her; steven grady was pretty cool and alternated between a really tight and a really ramshackle 'i only just wrote this song today and its not really ready' performance. he can surely play the harmonica, too (while watching him i made a mental note to skip the harmonica when we played, as i had been soundly showed up). xana was very enjoyable too, and though im usually not into the type of music she played, her energy and enthusiasm drew me in. highlight of her set (and perhaps also the evening) was when she got steven grady up to duet on johnny cash's 'ring of fire'.

we played the most shambolic set ever. i think we had 45min or so in which to play (we might have started a bit late so it may have been a bit less than that), and we probably managed maybe 7 songs? actually, make that 7.5 songs. i was trying to play one of my more difficult songs and it just wasnt working; i kept forgetting the lyrics and fumbling over the picking. halfway through i said something like 'this song can fuck right off' and played slint's 'washer' instead, which was probably a good idea as the room went really quiet while i played, which is always a really enjoyable experience. the rest of the set was pretty good, i reckon. i played well, just very loosely. we had good energy though. we didnt write a setlist before we started, so there were big breaks between songs while we debated what to play next. that sort of thing worked (to a degree) in captain w00t, since we didnt have to change instruments. with the amount of crap we have on stage in mt augustus, i dont think we'll be going 'setlist-less' again any time soon.

the next thing of note to happen (to me) after jugglers was my graduation last friday. strange day. running around all morning trying to a) buy a tie, b) make myself presentable, c) pick up academic dress hire, d) frantically try to find my mogwai ticket, which i had lost. by the time i got to graduation i was a bit frazzled and pissed off. went into the hall. sat down for ages. watched people get their doctorates and master degrees and what-nots. stood up for a minute, inching towards the stage. name called. rush out onto stage. try to catch eye of thesis supervisor who is checking his nails. shake hand of chancellor. can't hear what chancellor says to me. take empty cylinder. rush off stage. follow person in front of me to the area where we actually get our degrees. too flustered and cant figure out where to actually get my degree from. sit back down and realise that everyone else is holding their degrees while i am not. watch more people get degrees. speech from some guy from the university of adelaide about doing the things that you most enjoy. get up. leave. take photos. eat caramel tarts and scones with jam. drive home.

people are always saying 'congratulations' to me about finishing uni. to be perfectly honest, it doesnt seem as though its much of an accomplishment. sure, it took a long time, but... that doesn't make it seem like much of an accomplishment to me. i AM proud that i was able to get honours (level 2A) though. graduating was a really weird experience. i didnt really feel happy when i was there, i just felt depressed.

was supposed to see mogwai that evening. never found my lost ticket, so i was unable to go. went out to dinner with my family, girlfriend and girlfriend's family. actually enjoyed it very much, and was glad that i was there. didnt really think about mogwai very much, and by the time i got home it was no longer bothering me so much, since i knew that id be seeing them at splendour the next day, which brings us to...

got ready for splendour at a leisurely pace on saturday morning. left brisbane around 10:30am. drove straight to the festival, didnt bother dropping my stuff off at the campsite first. i was staying in my sister and her boyfriend's tent, so i didnt really have much to set up.

i wont go into detail for splendour, because a) a lot of people who would read this went, and b) those who didnt go have probably had enough of people telling them what it was like. so i'll just stick to the bands that i went to see, those being mogwai and sonic youth.

mogwai were on at 8:15pm. i got to the g.w. mclennan stage around 7:50pm. the seats were already full, but there was still room in front of the stage, so i went and got myself a decent spot to the right side of the stage, probably about 3m back from the front of the stage, directly in front of dominic (bassist). eventually the band walked out and started the set with 'yes, i am a long way from home'. insanely loud (although things would get MUCH louder in other songs). i was very thankful for my earplugs. despite the insane volume the sound was quite clear. they played a lot of songs that i was quite keen to hear; mogwai fear satan, we're no here, i know you are but what am i, glasgow mega snake. they also played helicon 1, which was amazing, but id already seen that at livid a few years back (along with MY FATHER MY KING and 2 rights make 1 wrong). the only disappointment was that they didnt play anything off come on die young, which is my favourite mogwai album. hearing cody, ex-cowboy or christmas steps would have pretty much ensured that the festival was the best id ever been to right there and then. as it was, it took sonic youth's set to make that true.

i got to sonic youth nice and early and got a spot that was reasonably, but out of the squash that occurs right in front of the stage. i was on lee's side of stage, which was good because last time i saw them i was on thurston's side. anyway, they started playing and it was just... wow. the fact that 75% of the set came from rather ripped proved how good that album really is (even though a lot of people say its weak... i just say that its a grower). they also played some choice older cuts (schizophrenia as an encore, along with mote, 100% and a song from the first release that i cant remember the name of... nothing from murray st, sonic nurse or daydream nation, which was a little bit surprising).

during their set i was struck by a realisation: sonic youth are probably the best band in the world right now (ie: out of bands still playing and making records). let me explain: sonic youth arent my favourite band (although theyre up there, certainly). they never have been, and probably wont ever be. but when i look at them objectively, i have to admit that theyre just plain 'better' than any other band i listen to, or can think of. theyve been around for 25 years, and over the course of that time have produced countless amazing albums and songs. theyve had more influence than the vast majority of bands who are still around (and im not including bands like the rolling stones, who are a shell of their former selves, or former greats backed by session musicians, ala brian wilson). theyve experimented with a wide variety of sounds and have had great success at both extremes of the spectrum - your 'pop' stuff (dirty, goo, sonic nurse and rather ripped), your 'experimental/noise' stuff (confusion is sex, bad moon rising and the SYR stuff), and then stuff that combine the two (daydream nation, sister, evol, washing machine, a thousand leaves, even murray st). they have more energy and vitality and brains and heart and emotion and fucking ROCK in their albums and live shows than bands full of people HALF THEIR AGE! these guys are all around 50 years old! and yet their current stuff is comparable to pretty much anything theyve ever made (in my opinion). almost every other band out their should be ashamed of themselves! although perhaps its too harsh to hold other bands up to the same standards of sonic youth.

the rest of the bands were generally fairly enjoyable (i didnt see anyone that i *disliked*). yeah yeah yeahs were probably the pick of the rest of the bands. brian wilson was kind of strange to watch, but the music was good. i was a bit disappointed that i didnt get to see jose gonzalez, but oh well. wolfmother were, quite frankly, hilarious - i kept expecting the singer to ask us if we wanted to go on a 'jazz odyssey'.

overall it was the most enjoyable festival ive been to. the rain and mud didnt bother me in the slightest (when i heard it was muddy i just figured 'oh well, nothing can be done about that, no point trying to stay clean'). the usual festival morons didnt bother me. i didnt even start to feel achey and tired until after the yeah yeah yeahs on sunday night.

the last thing ill mention is that pat elliott and i have started up our new band/project in earnest. we had a jam yesterday and now have a list of 7 songs. its kind of along the lines of captain w00t, except instrumental (at the moment) and much much crazier. its like if you took a couple of captain w00t songs and stuffed them into a 2min song. its very sonic youth / polvo / deerhoof / tortoise. its really challenging to drum on, ill tell you that much. im going to need to do a lot of practice to play this stuff properly. i think pat is probably of the same opinion re: his guitar playing in this new 'band'. we'll probably do some proper recordings and put them up when pat gets back from NZ in a week. we might also try to organise a show before i go to europe in late august... theres a lot of improv, so we can probably scrape a set together.

we're thinking of calling it 'hey zeus!' (stolen from my msn name). again, this is pretty much because we cant think of anything better. you see, theres this rule with my bands' names: they have to alternate between bad and good. in chronological order, they go: avatar (bad), forevergreen (pretty good), captain w00t (bad), mt augustus (popular consensus is 'good'). therefore my next band has to have a bad name. i dont make the rules, i just follow them.

we're also thinking of my having a female singer / keyboardist. maybe. we mentioned it in passing. so if you fit that description then youre welcome to send me a message.

i think ive just about written enough for the moment (and years worth of moments to come). if youve read this far then let me know and ill give you a gold star next time i see you. adios!

show tonight

Thu, 13 Jul 2006 15:17:32 GMT

from rave this week:

"This Friday at Jugglers Art Space in Fortitude Valley, you can catch Mt Augustus with their wheezing accordion and banjo laced alt-country tunes; Shiver Like Timber, fresh from supporting Holly Throsby and quickly proving to be one of Brisbanes finest songwriters; along with Xana, The Boxkites and Stephen Grady."

it's official. we are alt-country.

come along. its at Jugglers (103 brunswick st, fortitude valley). donation entry. starts at 8pm. we're on around 11pm.

the most boring song in the history of the universe!

Wed, 28 Jun 2006 14:08:48 GMT

last night i did something ive been wanting to do for ages: i wrote a 7min song consisting of a single 4 chord progression (ok, and a little riff that comes in once at around the 4min mark). i was inspired after listening to the for carnation's 'moonbeams' at 1am.

my next goal is to start incorporating more wobble board into my music.

i have about 8 new mt augustus songs. 3 of them have lyrics so far (i want to increase this to around 5 or 6 before i go to perth on sunday). i think that i like most of them quite a bit. once i finish them the band will have about 20 songs in active duty, which is more than any other band ive ever been in. forevergreen only had around 10 songs at any one point in time (although some of them were up towards 10min in length), i think captain w00t might have had around 15 at most (probably a bit less than that, actually). special branch had maybe 10-12 (that i knew).

ps: pat e beat me in tennis tonight (6-4), and im pretty disappointed in myself. my serve deserted me halfway through my first service game (2 of my 3 serves prior to that were aces/unreturnables). to be honest though, we both played fairly crap (though it was still fun to play). it was our first game since last august though, so we're very out of practice.
pps: it was real tennis, not computer tennis.

ICE

Mon, 26 Jun 2006 04:21:46 GMT

earlier today i was thinking 'wouldnt ICE be a cool name to have'.

but then i realised that youd probably get all of these phone calls whenever friends of yours were in car accidents or choked on some food or something. and that would happen more often than if your name wasnt ICE, because with a name like that youd have *heaps* of friends, so the chance that one of them was in an accident would be higher than normal.

eve

Fri, 23 Jun 2006 14:04:24 GMT

tomorrow, at 11:15am (approximately 11hrs and 15min from now) i will have my last ever university exam.

this thought fills me with equal happiness and sadness. its been 5 and a half years work getting to this point, so im glad that ill have something to show for it soon. on the other hand... i've been doing this for 5 and a half years, so even though i've been stressing out for the last few months about finishing thesis / etc, im going to miss the lifestyle ive had while at uni. its been all ive known for a long time, and my uni years have pretty much been the best of my life (so far). and i have learnt some interesting things along the way.

plus, it means that im going to have to get a real job soon. i know that ill be able to handle the work thats thrown my way when i get one (engineering vacation work has proved this to me, especially my last job where i was essentially a full-on software engineer; i even worked on my own in the brisbane office for the last month or so of that job, communicating occasionally with the rest of the product development team in newcastle via teleconferencing, etc)... its just the process of getting a 'real job' thats the problem. most of my uni friends who are graduating this year have already organised jobs for themselves. i havent, because i honestly couldnt face it while i still had thesis and exams ahead of me. now that theyre almost over, i can't put the search for work off any longer. unfortunately, i really have no idea what sort of software work i want. most of the jobs ive seen advertised dont *really* seem too enticing to me.

i should go to bed now, and get a good 8hrs of sleep so that i can think straight in the exam tomorrow. i feel pretty good about the actual exam, i think i know my stuff moderately well. plus im going into it on 90% (of the 45% done so far), so that's always nice.

wish me luck. by the time you read this i may well be finished.

realisations

Sat, 10 Jun 2006 02:25:18 GMT

so, as i mentioned previously, mt augustus played at the troubadour on thursday night. we played with chris dale, phil smith and leichhardt. the average age of those artists would have been almost 10years more than our average age. while i enjoyed them for the most part (phil smith's stuff was pretty good, as was chris dale, and i especially enjoyed jamie accompanying him on MUSICAL SAW!!), i was struck by a realisation while watching them.

well, actually, i wasnt really struck. its something ive known for a while, but thursday night kind of drove it home. all of those artists were really 'smooth'. there were no edges to anything they did, no real lows but equally no real highs. that was what they were aiming for, im sure (well, maybe not the 'no real highs' bit, although i guess thats subjective), so in that respect they were quite successful. and certainly theres nothing intrinsically *wrong* with making that sort of music. but its something that i definitely dont want to do.

the problem is, its easy to fall into that trap. its easy to make things 'smooth'. i know for sure that ive been guilty of it on occasion. i know that ive written songs, recorded them and thought 'thats not what i heard in my head, thats too *nice*'. and so i re-write and re-record. about half (probably more, actually) of the mt augustus songs have been completely re-written at some stage or another. theres one thats gone through about 4 re-writes, and im still not 100% happy with it (its the somewhat loud and angry one, for those familiar with it... current re-write involves redoing the chorus and breakdown lyrics).

im getting there. i think when we play live certain things are closer to what i want them to be. my vocals certainly are, for one thing. when i record i tend to 'play it safe', since i dont want to sing to quiet (too much hiss) or too loud (too much distortion). such is the curse of being a techie type of guy. i need to let loose a bit more, and do the old 'whisper to a scream' thing.

i think about bands like the ambitious lovers, who i guess are in the same general ballpark as us (ie: the extremely broad label of 'folk'), but who just seem so much freer in what theyre doing. i really love that. i loved watching them play a few weeks ago, opening for low. there were ukeleles feeding back, home made percussion instruments, wailed singing... it was great.

so thats what im aiming for. probably not to that same extent (i dont think it would be honest of me to play music quite like that, id feel like i was putting it on), but hopefully to capture that sense of freedom. i think i'm/we're getting there.

anyway, im sure that the other bands on thursday thought that we were hopelessly unprofessional or something. those that stayed to watch us, that is. :D

The end is nigh

Mon, 05 Jun 2006 06:29:24 GMT

Today I handed in my last ever uni assignment. It feels pretty good I guess. I don't know, I don't think it's sunk in yet. I have three exams over the next three weeks, so it's not all over just yet.

Something that IS all over is my thesis (well, actually that's not true... I still have to get it printed out and bound next week... but other than that, its all done). It's titled 'Visualising Models of Complex Ecosystems'. If you really want to, you can download a copy and read it from here. I was a bit rushed with the 'Results and Discussion' section, because the night before it was due I realised that my software had a fairly major bug that meant that all of the results I'd measured and written about over the previous few days were actually wrong, and so I had to fix the bug, redo all of my measurements, and then re-write all of the discussion of said results. It was a stressful night, and I never really got the chance to go over things to make sure that they were of a good quality... so if that section seems to be of worse quality than the rest, you know why. I don't know, maybe it's fine. All I know is that I can think of a few things I would have liked to mention that I didnt.

So now the pressure is starting to be released. I have about a week to study for each exam, so as long as I spread my study out I shouldn't be rushed at all. I think I most likely will actually study properly this time, since it's my last semester and I really don't want to fail anything.

This afternoon is set aside for finishing Half Life 2: Episode 1. Tonight I'll watch Supernatural, and I'll probably go and finish mixing that second John Steel Singers song (finally). I think I'll probably play some guitar/banjo (I should probably restring my banjo while I'm at it). And I might start writing lyrics for those songs I've been sitting on for the last few months. There are a list of things I've read/seen/heard about recently that I've really been wanting to write about, so it will be good to finally put pen to paper. Who would have thought that I'd ever enjoy writing lyrics? Not I.

Mt Augustus play The Troubadour on Thursday night (8th). It's a late gig (10:45pm), so I'll understand if noone comes (moreso than usual). If, however, you do want to come along, I will be most happy to see you there. I will most likely be wearing a funny hat during our set... as long as Pat McD remembers to bring it.

music post (mostly)

Sun, 21 May 2006 12:20:18 GMT

i've been pretty busy lately (trying to get these pesky degrees finished up... damn you thesis! *shakes fist*), but i thought id take time out to jot down some introspective (slash self absorbed) yet public confessions.

(dont read this post if you don't want to know the inner most workings of my mind in relation to music and my relation to it, especially in regards to its creation. plus, this post is going to be LONG)

so... i like music. a lot. i like to listen to it. i like to play it. i like to read about it. i like to talk about it. i like to record it. i like seeing what other people are able to create with it. but i think i need a break from certain aspects of it. for one thing, i need a break from playing with other people for a while. playing with other people can be fantastic, it can be one of the best things ever... but sometimes it can be incredibly frustrating. additionally, lately ive been exploring what im able to do pretty much completely on my own, and ive been enjoying that a lot. once i get some time im looking forward to exploring that further... do some more recordings, play some solo shows (i suppose), write a new bunch of songs. all of that sounds quite appealing to me right now.

of course, ive been in a few bands along the way. captain w00t has been in limbo for a while now, and i don't know what will happen with that, if anything... although if something does happen it wont be for a fair while anyway. pat, adrian and myself had a forevergreen rehearsal last weekend with simon from the narcotics on drums. it was interesting, although things didnt really go in the direction i was expecting. it had more of a dream-pop sort of sound, where i was hoping for something a bit more abstract and... cathartic, i guess. but it was just a first rehearsal, and we were just jamming, so i probably shouldnt read into it too much.

mt augustus is mixed for me right now. i recorded an album's worth of songs for that 'band' (with help from the other band members and friends), and while i like the songs, there are elements of it that i dont like. most of my misgivings are related to my voice, which i think sounds a bit 'm.o.r. melodic rock' at times. im planning to go back and redo at least half of the vocals on those songs, as well as add some horns and maybe another mandolin part here and there, and perhaps also pare back a couple of songs that perhaps are a bit TOO 'lush'. and i also want to record a few more songs that have a bit of a different sound from the ones ive done so far... i just need to finish writing them first. theres one song thats a real 'hoe-down' sort of thing on banjo that i want to use to write about helen morrison and her studies of serial killers (she interviewed about 80 serial killers in an attempt to find some set of common traits, as she believes that serial killers are pre-disposed to their actions... she actually owns john wayne gacy jr's brain, as he donated it to her after being killed... which is actually another interesting story, but ill save it for another time).

i actually enjoy writing lyrics now. the thing that has changed is that im no longer trying to be abstract with what im writing about. back in the old days i used to try to be... i dont know... thom yorke... or jeff mangum if you want a more indie-hip figure. basically lots of words that dont have a direct and obvious meaning, but that use metaphors and imagery and less concrete stuff. that stuff is great, but since ive recently begun to get into artists like okkervil river, sufjan stevens, nick cave, etc, i've enjoyed lyrics that are much more narative-based. personally i think im much better at that style, because im not really the most abstract-minded person; im no good at metaphors, but i like to think that ive had enough interesting experiences in my life to write a couple of songs about (that are not along the lines of 'oh my god, the girl i love doesnt love me anymore, im going to drink some whiskey'). i know im no lyrical master, but it would be nice to write lyrics that a) dont make me cringe when i read them the next day, and b) dont make others cringe when they hear them.

i think these days im doing music much more for myself than for other people. thats not to say that i used to do music that i thought others would like at the expense of what i wanted to play, but i used to be more desiring of some sort of positive feedback. i think now im more willing to have people think what im playing is complete and utter shit. in fact, a part of me really WANTS people to think that. i kind of desire more extreme reactions to music that im a part of. i think in the past much of what ive been a part of making is the sort of stuff that you listen to and think 'oh yeah, thats nice' and then dont give another thought. though im not sure how to fix that other than to start some band with another drummer and a guitarist playing 15minute doom metal / shoegaze songs*.

so yeah, thats the state of play in my head. music definitely has its perks though. for one thing, im playing a show in perth when i go there in july, and the guy who books the venue (the hyde park hotel) just happens to be the singer/songwriter for one of my absolute favourite bands, adam said galore. so im pretty happy about that. it'll be cool to play somewhere different.

maybe i should organise a show in a park or something... hmmm... thatd certainly be different.

congratulations if you made it this far. youre obviously a person of a strong constitution.

* if this sounds like a cool idea then let me know, coz im serious about it. i reckon thatd be really cool.

and if youre feeling sad

Mon, 15 May 2006 06:57:59 GMT

if that last post made you feel a bit sad, check this out...

cab driver gets mistaken for internet guru & interviewed on tv:
http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=386136&in_page_id=1770&in_a_source=&ct=5

ps: mt augustus @ rics TONIGHT (9pm). we're on first, so you can get home nice and early if need be.

jumpers

Mon, 15 May 2006 05:45:37 GMT

i was reading an article on the golden gate bridge just then (or more specifically, people jumping off the golden gate bridge), and this struck me as one of the saddest things ive read:

Ken Baldwin (one of 26 bridge jump survivors) on what went through his mind right after jumping - “I instantly realized that everything in my life that I’d thought was unfixable was totally fixable — except for having just jumped.”