Blog is a stupid word

mp3 shuffle (five knuckle shuffle)

2010-10-19T15:27:00.002+11:00

Ok, I'll play along. Everybody else seems to be doing it. I'll just let random run on my computer (a bit more all over the place than what is on my mp3 player) and see what shows up at http://www.last.fm/user/politemadness after a bit.

The rules: Take your iPod or MP3 player (or launch iTunes or whatever), and put it on shuffle. List the first 25 songs and artists in order (no skipping stuff you find embarrassing!) If I got a second song by an artist who already popped up, I skipped ahead to the next one. Some might regard that as cheating, but it gives a wider idea of your music collection. Once you have made your list, tag 25 of your friends (including me).

1. Standing On The Corner by Dean Martin on the album, The Big Lebowski (Unofficial Soundtrack)
2. Squeeze Box by The Who on the album, Greatest Hits & More
3. William It Was Really Nothing by The Smiths on the album, Asleep
4. So You Want To Be A Rock N Roll Star by Byrds on the album, 3 Byrds In London Live at the BBC
5. Up for Sale by The (International) Noise Conspiracy on the album, Punk-O-Rama, Volume 7
6. 72 (This Highway's Mean) by Drive-By Truckers on the album, Southern Rock Opera
7. Fever Island by Naked Raygun on the album, Raygun...Naked Raygun
8. Another the Letter by Wire on the album, Chairs Missing
9. The Second Line (live @ WFMU 2001) by Clinic on the album, Live at WFMU on Scott's Show on 10/5/2001
10. Cartes postales d'Alabama by Johnny Hallyday on the album, Collection, Volume 23 : Je suis victime de l'amour : 1982 - 1983
11. Everybody Needs Somebody to Love (Stereo) by Rolling Stones on the album, The Early Stereo Recordings
12. Punk's Not Dead by The Exploited on the album, The Punk Set
13. Revolution by Spacemen 3 on the album, Play With Fire
14. Crying, Waiting, Hoping by Marty Stuart and Steve Earle on the album, Not Fade Away (Remembering Buddy Holly)
15. Dona Girafa by Xuxa on the album, 4deg Xou da Xuxa
16. Disgusted by Lucinda Williams on the album, Ramblin'
17. Refugee by Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers on the album, Damn the Torpedoes
18. Boys Don't Cry by Cure on the album, Alternative Eighties CD 2
19. The Inner Light by The Beatles on the album, Mono Masters (Disc 2) [2009 Mono Remaster]
20. You Just May Be The One by Michael Nesmith on the album, The Wichita Train Whistle Sings
21. Boing Boom Tschak by Kraftwerk on the album, Electric Cafe
22. What I Need by Steel Pole Bath Tub on the album, Unlistenable
23. Veronikukvaedi by trad (Iceland) arr Jakob Hallgrimsson on the album, I begin my journey: 1000 years of Icelandic Church Music
24. God Bows to Math by Minutemen on the album, 112985 WREK Atlanta GA
25. The Vipers by The Streamline Train on the album, 1957: When Skiffle Was King

Here comes the ocean and the waves

2010-01-12T10:23:00.002+11:00

Outdoor swims 2009 and more

Ok, so I didn't grow up near the ocean. Outdoor swimming (outside of swimming pools) isn't something that was such a big thing in my life, but after some time in the UK and finding how much fun it was to swim in all sorts of places (lakes, rivers, oceans) in all sorts of conditions (hot, cold, calm, rough), well, it become more of a quest. I still don't live conveniently close to any sort of wild swim place, but whenever I travel, I still try to find places. So, my list of 2009 and going back a few years.

2010

Half Moon Bay, Black Rock Beach, Port Phillip Bay, VIC, Australia - 10 January 2010
Apollo Bay, Apollo Bay, Bass Strait, VIC, Australia - 2 January 2010
Aire River, Hordern Vale, VIC, Australia - 1 January 2010

2009

St George River/Cape Otway, Lorne, Bass Strait VIC, Australia - 31 December 2009
Torquay Beach (wading only), Zeally Bay, Bass Strait, VIC, Australia - 31 December 2009
Henley Beach, Gulf St Vincent, Adelaide, SA, Australia - 5 Nov 2009
Gemstone Bay, South Pacific, Hahei, New Zealand - 22 April 2009 (snorkeling)
Mount Maunganui, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand - 21 April 2009
Cottesloe Beach, Indian Ocean, WA, Australia - 19 March 2009
South Beach, Indian Ocean, Fremantle, WA, Australia - 15 March 2009
Frenchman's Bay, Southern Ocean, WA, Australia - 8 March 2009
Two Peoples Bay, Southern Ocean, WA, Australia - 6 March 2009
Southern Ocean 2 hours walk east of Pallinup, WA, Australia - 25 February 2009 (skinny dip!)
Southern Ocean at Beaufort inlet at Pallinup River, WA, Australia - 20-25 February 2009
Frankland River, Nornalup, WA, Australia - 13 February 2009
Greens Pool, William Bay, Southern Ocean, near Denmark, WA, Australia - 8 February 2009
Mistaken Island, Frenchman's Bay, Southern Ocean, Albany, WA, Australia - 22 January 2009 (also snorkeling)
South Beach, Indian Ocean, Fremantle, WA, Australia - 17 January 2009
Catherine Point, Indian Ocean, Fremantle, WA, Australia - 16 January 2009 (bonus dolphin sighting)
Sairee Beach, Koh Tao, Gulf of Thailand, Thailand - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 January 2009

2008

Laem Thian, Koh Tao, Gulf of Thailand, Thailand - 28, 29, 30, 31 December 2008, 1 January 2009
Cua Dai Beach, South China Sea, Hoi An, Vietnam - 4 December 2008
Lake Baikal, Sakhurta, Siberia, Russia - 26 September 2008 (ok, only dipped hand in)
Finnhamn, Stockholm archipelago, Sweden, 3 September 2008
Kalgardson, Stockholm archipelago, Sweden, 2 September 2008
Aurlandsfjorden, Norway, 17 August 2008
Liverpool Bay/River Mersey, Wirral, Irish Sea, UK, 27 July 2008
Brockwell Lido, London, UK, 23 July 2008
West Mersea, Essex, Thames Estuary, UK, 20 July 2008 (ok, only waded)
Grange Chine, Brightstone Bay, Isle of Wight, English Channel, UK, 15 July 2008
Whitecliff Bay, Isle of Wight, English Channel, UK, 14 July 2008
Hampstead Heath, mixed pond, London, UK, 6 July 2008
Fraserburgh Bay, Fraserburgh, North Sea, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, 7 June 2008
Boulmer Haven, Boulmer, North Sea, Northumberland, UK, 20 May 2008
Loch Tay, Fearnan by Aberfeldy, Perthshire, Scotland - 13 May 2008
The West Sands, St Andrews, Edinburgh, Firth of Forth, Scotland - 1 January 2008

2007

London Fields Lido, Hackney, London, UK - Sept 2007
Lake Bala, Bala, Wales - Aug 2007
River Usk (Afon Wysg), Crickhowell, Wales - Aug 2007
Cuckmere Haven, East Sussex, English Channel, UK - Aug 2007
Hampstead Heath, mixed pond, London, UK - Aug 2007
Dunwich, Suffolk, North Sea, UK - July 2007
Westcliff-on-sea, Essex, Thames Estuary, UK - July 2007
Druridge Bay, Northumberland, North Sea, UK - June 2007
St Bees, Cumbria, Irish Sea, UK - June 2007
River Cocker, Cockermouth, Cumbria, UK - June 2007

2006

Lake Bala, Wales - Aug 2006
Pett Level, East Sussex, English Channel, UK - Aug 2006
Winchelsea, East Sussex, English Channel, UK - Aug 2006
Hastings, East Sussex, English Channel, UK - July 2006
Dunwich, Suffolk, North Sea, UK - July 2006
Naples, Florida, Gulf of Mexico, USA - June 2006

The show must go on

2010-01-06T15:51:00.000+11:00

Concerts 2009 - Not my best year but certainly better than I've been doing over the past few years. Melbourne has a pretty good music scene and I've been working to improve my going out skills. Lots of these were bands I wanted to see years ago, old favourites from the 80s and then also a few newer ones to try and keep up with some more current music. So, 2009 then. Here's hoping that 2010 will be even better.

Red Brigades / Sophisticants / Jonathans - 2 May 2009 - Revolver Upstairs
Angie Hart / Guy Blackman - 5 May 2009 - Toff
New Estate / Elizabeth Pistol Club / Midnight Caller - 9 May 2009 - The Old Bar
Flipper / Nation Blue - 6 June 2009 - the Espy
The Band Who Knew Too Much / Dobe and the Veterans (Big Bush Dance) - 13 June 2009 - Northcote Town Hall
Victoria Williams / Vic Chesnutt / Natalie D-Napoleon and Andre Hook - 9 July 2009 - East Brunswick Club
The Bats / The Crayon Fields / The Twerps - 7 August 2009 - Northcote Social Club
New Christs / Bowerbirds / Lindsay Low Hand - 8 August 2009 - The Tote
Chapterfest - Tenniscoats / Pikelet / Minimum Chips / Hit The Jackpot / Jeremy Dower Y Las Palmeras de plástico / Primitive Calculators / Dick Diver / Bum Creek - 19 September 2009 - The Tote
Shonen Knife / I Heart Hiroshima -24 September 2009 - The Corner Hotel
Stems / Even / Huxton Creepers / Dolly Rocker Movement -9 October 2009 - Corner Hotel
Hard-Ons / Useless Children / Dr El Suavo / Killer Birds - 10 October 2009 - Corner Hotel
Buzzcocks / Spazzys / Royal Headache - 21 November 2009 - Corner Hotel
The Church / Astreetlightsong / The Kicks - 5 December 2009 - Corner Hotel
Akron/Family / Fabulous Diamonds - 10 December 2009 - Corner Hotel
Kitty, Daisy and Lewis /Dan Kelly - 11 December 2009 - Corner Hotel
Lime Spiders / Devilrock Four / Screwtop Detonators - 19 December 2009 - Northcote Social Club

Take a little trip back to the stone age with me

2009-12-29T09:25:00.002+11:00

Lime Spiders, The Devilrock Four and Screwtop Detonators
19 December 2009, Corner Hotel, Melbourne

In my continuing series of seeing old Aussie 80s bands, I wasn't sure about the Lime Spiders. Yeah, Slave Girl is a pretty awesome song, but is that enough? I had an early morning the next day as well. But it is at the Northcote Social Club, like 5 minutes away, it seems silly not to go.

Not a lot of people there when I get there. In hindsight, the Screwtop Detonators shouldn't have been enough to get me there early either. Their myspace pages quotes a lot of old punk bands, mostly 70s NY punk, but I just wasn't hearing it so much. Some day when they are bigger than Blink 182, they can have proved me wrong, but for me there was something about them tonight that was just a huge mess. I also see that they have recently lost their drummer and have a new one now. I think that was a whole lot of their problem. The rhythm seemed to be a mess, it seemed like every time he did a drum fill, he would be late on the beat, or something that totally threw it all off. The singer at one point complained that his vocals were too loud in the monitors, he hated his voice, could they turn it down. Hmm, not a ringing self endorsement.

The crowd didn't warm to them very much (the 20 people who were there at the time) and the band made those silences between the songs rather awkward by being a little upset about them. Maybe they were having an off night, or they just weren't that great to start with. Although, they did do a version of Police On My Back, which I have a bit of a soft spot for, I have to admit having been in a band which did a version of it as well.

The Devilrock Four start and yeah that's more like it. I had a better feeling while they were setting up, the guitar player played along with TV Eye which was one of the in between set songs. Two guys were in back shuffling through their cds, playing stuff between sets, some of it cool - Saints, Celebate Rifles, and some of it not - Blink 182, I think. But Devilrock Four, launch in and I think, yeah, better, a little bit like the Fluid. They aspire more towards more harder punk, Radio Birdman or there about, than the Screwtops who wanted to be more pop. They also solved the problem of silence between songs Husker Du style, that is don't stop between songs.

But after a few songs, it starts to sound the same and I get a little bored. I mean they are fairly tight and have a pretty good sound but it just doesn't hold my interest past a few songs. There is a rather strange guy jumping around and dancing in the audience, spinning on the ground and whacking his own head with his hand. I assume that he wasn't quite all there. He was slightly entertaining yet I spent most of the set (and the next one) worrying that he would run into me, step on my feet, or whatever.

When the Lime Spiders come on, they don't quite match my picture of them, at Mick Blood and the famous voice. The rest seem grizzly enough, two guitars, bass, drum and that voice, I believe at least one guitar player and bass player are original members (or at least from the 80s when they did the bulk of their work). I enjoy their version of Are You Loving Me More (Electric Prunes). Slave Girl, they have to play it, is about 2/3rds of the way through and pretty much lives up to my expectations. I suppose Slave Girl is mostly why I showed up, you know, the one song that bands have that so far exceed anything else they ever did. Not to say the rest of the set isn't good, I like a lot of their other songs but really Slave Girl is like a perfect song.

They do a pretty decent version of Iggy Pop's I'm Bored. I spend a lot of the show closer to one of the guitar amps, some loud and cool sounds coming out of there. But yeah, I'm pleased I went to see them, it was a good set of loud psychedelic fuzz with that unique voice in the middle. They do one song for an encore then leave. At least they don't drag out the whole encore thing like some people do any more. Then home isn't far away, I'm home and in bed a few minutes after the show.

Old time rock and roll

2009-12-15T13:29:00.002+11:00

Kitty, Daisy and Lewis, Dan Kelly
11 December 2009, Corner Hotel, Melbourne

Every time I see a show at the Corner, the crowd is completely different. Yeah, obviously, the Hard-Ons are going to attract a different crowd than the Church. But you know, I'm the same at all of them, why don't they all just look like me? Tonight, the crowd looks a lot like Sha Na Na, a fair amount of pompadour hairdos in evidence. Even though tonight is sold out and it should be packed, I'm hoping there won't be as much pushing and shoving as normal.

I guess I'm just a recent convert to Kitty, Daisy and Lewis. I've heard some of their recordings and they seem pretty charming. Reports are that the live shows are fun and good too, so I have pretty good expectations which I can report were fulfilled during the evening.

But Dan Kelly is just coming on as we get there. I looked him up before going, since I had never heard of him. Apparently he had some successful stuff out a few years ago, some a little political (Sleeping on Election Night) and has gotten some awards (or nominated or something). He also seems to be a the nephew of well loved Aussie star Paul Kelly. His band for the evening seems to have been hastily assembled for this supporting spot for the tour. No bass player, a keyboard player who looked like he was a little stoned (or just grumpy), a drummer who apparently used to play for Eskimo Joe (I would probably know more about them if I listened to Triple J more often) and is tapped to play for XX (can't remember the name but it might not have been finalized since he got a little annoyed when Dan mentioned it), and a singing duo the Ukeladies on backing vocals.

So, a few songs I liked, although there was something in the overall sound that didn't sit well with me. I could never quite figure out, did it just sound way too commercial (although it was all a bit rough and the band didn't seem really very tight). The song about bombing power plants and being on the run from the helicopters (complete with helicopter sound effects), although he did screw it up and had to restart the song part way through. Some apparently were his older songs, which I hadn't heard. He did a ukelaile version of Nothing Compares 2U (Sinead O'Conner) which was kind of cute.

The crowd was funny and different tonight. I mean it was sold out and packed but when people tried to crowd up front half way through, they would get scolded, you haven't been standing here for the last hour, have you?

So, if you haven't heard, Kitty, Daisy and Lewis are siblings and were like 12, 14 and 16 (I believe that was like 4 years ago) who play rockabilly on a variety of instruments. They are now joined by their parents, dad on guitar and mom (former drummer for the Raincoats) on stand-up bass. Ok, that last one is almost enough for me. I'm a real sucker for stand-up bass and she was pretty good and could really pull it off. Obviously, the whole family is pretty talented, all the kids switch off pretty effortlessly between guitar, drums, keyboards, trombone, etc.

They really have the fun bits of rockabilly down. It is quite funny to see somebody who started singing about getting her mojo going, learning from a gypsy woman when she was a pre-teen. They really pull it off though. I think the vast majority of what they perform now is versions of old rockabilly songs (like Mean Son Of A Gun by Johnny Horton), all of them probably obscure enough to modern audiences that they are new songs. They have started to write some of their own songs too.

They play for like 90 minutes, switching instruments pretty much every song, switching who is playing drums, playing a keyboard, strapping on an accordion. Part way through, they bring on Eddie 'Tan Tan' Thornton, a legendary Jamaican trumpet player, who has to getting on in his 70s now. He is quite cool. They play a bit of rockabilly ska with him and a few other numbers before he heads off. They play pretty much everything off their one record, and if you have heard it, it is pretty true to that sound, happy up tempo music that makes you want to dance. They impress too which their musical skills, long harmonica feats of endurance. The crowd eats it all up and goes home happy. For me, two great shows in two days (Akron/Family and this one), completely different in every way but both great nights out.

Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun

2009-12-11T16:32:00.003+11:00

Akron/Family, Fabulous Diamonds
10 December 2009, Corner Hotel, Melbourne

I'll just start off by saying, wow. I wasn't sure what to expect, I thought I would like it but really, wow, how could I have known?

So, the normal stuff, super rainy day yesterday, hard to make myself go out into it, and sickness took down some others who were supposed to go along. A shame about that, they would have loved it. Fabulous Diamonds had just started when we got there. I hadn't heard them before and various web pages say things like minimal psychniks, classic dub, experimentalism and post punk mixed together. So, basically it could sound like anything. They are a two piece band, a woman on drums and a guy playing keyboards (and turning dials on effects pedals).

She reminded me of Moe Tucker on drums, sometimes using mallets, simple drum patterns, very minimal, but with cycles in them and a different sound dropped in each cycle around. Much of it was instrumental but the singing was like Dead Can Dance when she did sing. The keyboards sounded like horror film soundtrack organs, mostly simple back and forth between two notes (and between two different keyboards) but that also cycled while he played with the digital delay and sound structure, like how harmonics and beats create different rhythms within the main rhythm. I suspect that there was some music theory in all of it, carefully thought out and constructed. In between it all, they didn't move much or say much.

Being experimental, I would say I liked about half of it, half the experiments worked. Like the 2nd to last song was 10 minutes or so of the simple two note variations that generated some really interesting rhythms, just got really hypnotic and trance like. Then the last song was sort of a variation of that, another long 10+ minute song that just didn't really feel like it fit together very well, just sort of beats and notes and stuff but not really a song. I guess not a bad choice for an opening band. I usually seem to be about 50/50 on them, they just had that split within the one set.

Now, I've been listening to a fair amount of Akron/Family lately, but that didn't really prepare me for the show. The records have lots of pretty little songs, slow and gentle pieces that have strange touches and unusual layers added on top, sort of acoustic sounding strumming, rhythm that sounds like it is sometimes played on cardboard boxes, creaking chairs, with happy vocals backed by choir like three part harmonies, then lead into noisier longer pieces. They are on Young God Records (Michael Gira's label) and I can see how they fit in with that sort of quiet intensity like the direction the Swans and Skin went in their later years.

I don't know where to start, maybe in the middle or towards the end with my favourite moment of it all. So, the band is a three piece with drum, bass and guitar, although that was flexible, might be three guitars at a time, or two drums and a guitar, or just singing with strange noises from effects pedals. But this song had two on drums (one a stand up set, tribal sort of drumming) and guitar as well as the two guests from Fabulous Diamonds hitting whatever sorts of drums were on stage. Just 10 minutes or whatever of tribal drumming and noises and just a crazy intensity which I haven't really seen at a show forever, like Crash Worship kind of crazy, just totally hypnotic then the bass play pulls out a little shrill pipe and starts blowing on that, almost like a fox hunt call to arms, all I could think is what the hell was that, how could this get any weirder. Wow.

There was some guy from the audience on the corner of the stage, dancing and bobbing around. They left him there for 10-15 minutes, you know he was just sort of there not doing anything. Security then goes and tries to push him off until the bass player goes and grabs him and pushes him away, so he stayed and danced away for a few more songs.

Just really, I can't describe it. Songs would shift into completely different things, and they just were indescribable in the first place. You know, this song is completely noisy but it seems like there is an Irish jig under there somewhere. Or the sea shanty underneath their final song of the night which already seemed to have some sort of jazz funk already on top of it. So, I really loved it. Three minute little pretty sweet songs with 10 minute noisy strange segues (all I could think of was vaguely Interstellar Overdrive like) into the next three minute pretty part. What isn't to love there? What an awesome mind blowing experience.

Church bells may ring

2009-12-11T12:29:00.003+11:00

The Church, ASTREETLIGHTSONG, The Kicks
5 December 2009, Corner Hotel, Melbourne

The weather has cooled off quite a bit in Melbourne the last few weeks. It wasn't pouring rain like the last time I was down to the Corner Hotel. (Seems like the Corner makes up the vast majority of the shows I've been seeing lately.) It was cool enough to need a jacket tonight. The Corner seems to be obsessively punctual but at 8:30, people were lined up outside, had to actually wait a few minutes to get in.

The Kicks are on the small 2nd stage tonight. 2 guy/2 girl band, apparently 2 of them are siblings, 2 guitar, drum, and bass. They say it is their second show. Just a tip, change your name. In the age of the internets, a name that isn't searchable is just ridiculous. I consider myself pretty savvy and it took me a long time to find their Myspace page. You know how many have Kicks in their name?

Not that it seemed worth the search. My mind wanders a lot during their set, what makes a band good or bad, even if they are practised and can play their instruments. Their pace never really changes. They have different guitar textures underneath, different things going on in the songs, but they don't really seem to fit together with everything else. And it all sounded a bit muddled, like lots of high school bands. The lyrics seemed a little annoying (lots of baby oh baby). They do a cover, they say what it is, black something or other, but I don't recognize it. Guess I spend too much time listening to Triple R and not Triple J.

I also think, guys and girls really do move differently with guitars. Both of the girls do that sort of curtsy knee bob bending backwards thing while the guys all sort of bop around moving their upper body.

ASTREETLIGHTSONG is up next on the main stage. Three guys this time, one on drums, one switching between bass and guitar and a third playing keyboards and singing (with that classic haircut, do all Aussie blokes dream of having their hair like that - straight down, like a helmet with spiky bits hanging over their ears and in their eyes?). Lots of it is sequenced too. And the drummer has a synth drum. Aack. Who ever thought one of those was a good idea, making even the greatest drummer sound like he is messing around with a Casio. But sweet dude, you can make handclapping sounds.

So, a totally cheezy 80s sound. I think, hmm, they sound a lot like Christian Death, although I haven't heard them in a long time, so I could be wrong. Keyboards way out there, bombastic, guitar so covered in effects that all the life has been taken out of it - just basically twangy midrange, and sort of gloomy vocals. So yeah, I didn't like them so much. I'm nostalgic about a lot of 80s music, but it reminds me there was a lot that also wasn't so great.

But the Church, they start with Tantalized. Looking at this review from Brisbane, they play pretty much the exact same set. I don't know, I'm not sure I agree with them. First of all, they think Astreetlightsong are great, which I didn't. And it seems a bit fanatical about the Church, I mean "guitar guru Peter Koppes emitting shards of freestyle noise from his Fender". It all seems a bit over the top.

I liked them but wasn't swept away by them. I know all the 80s stuff, sort of know the 90s stuff and haven't kept up at all with the recent stuff. After Tantalized, I think it is a bunch of the new stuff. They do an awful lot of guitar switching. Two guitar techs were on stage between each song, switching a 6 or 12 string and mixing up who is playing guitar and bass. Some of it was really great, although they have a tendency to wander off on long noisy jams, which got a bit long and dissonant (maybe out of tune). I did like Chrome Injury (I think, they said they wrote it in 1981, although I thought it had something about a coast in the title), which was long loud and noisy. It worked for them there. Despite reports to the contrary, they do actually move around while they are playing (besides the in between song guitar shuffle) and at times jumped around a little.

They did Milky Way about half way through, sounded good and it went over well with the crowd. People kept yelling requests and they ignored them, playing up their difficult reputation as ignoring what people wanted them to do and play. The cover of Disarm (Smashing Pumpkins) would have been nicer if it seemed more spontaneous. And despite what you might think of the Pumpkins, that song and sound does suit them, but not so much the Church, not enough spareness of the acoustic guitar. They said the Pumpkins covered one of their songs, so they were getting their revenge.

So yeah, nice but not as amazing as I hoped it might be. I found my mind wandering during the set, wondering things like why they are not the superstars that somebody like U2 is. I mean they are fantastic song writers, talented musicians, and certainly have songs that got huge and popular, why didn't they get huge? I know lots of accounts blame grunge for coming in and stealing away their momentum. That just doesn't jive with me, I mean R.E.M. went through that time too and after Nirvana imploded, they came out the other side. I think they is something about the long jams, a bit of deliberate inaccessibility that kind of kept them back. Anyways, that's a debate for another day.

What do I get?

2009-12-03T18:10:00.004+11:00

Buzzcocks, Spazzys, and Royal Headache
Sat 21 November 2009, Corner Hotel, Melbourne

After a week of burning heat, it started raining the day before and is still raining. Instead of riding my bike all the way, I guess I'll take the train most of the way. Even having done that, I still get pretty wet getting there.

The Corner Hotel seems to be obsessively punctual about their show times. I'm there on time but Royal Headache are already playing. It doesn't seem like that much of a loss. I've looked at their myspace page and some reviews of them and they seem to be fairly well liked, but I don't get it. In one interview, they say they sound like a Melvins song. Huh? Maybe it is a Melvins song I've never heard. The sound is vaguely jangly (sort of 80s Postcard like), kind of fast, and not very exciting. The guitar player (on a Rickenbacher, didn't help) and the bass player are just goofy happy and seem to be having a great time.

I guess the music isn't so bad, just not very exciting. The singing, I don't really like much at all. I keep racking my brain to figure out what it sounds like, maybe like some 70s singer/songwriter long story narrative, or I just can't place it. He paces back and forth and keep saying he is screwing up the songs. I don't disagree. The place isn't full yet but they seem to have brought a lot of their friends who yell for them and love them.

They leave, the curtain is pulled, and I work on getting my place staked out. A woman is in a wheelchair to the left, so that should be a good barrier for being pushed from that side. The other people around me take lots of pictures of themselves with their Blackberries. Don't know, maybe they can get pictures posted of themselves on the twitter quicker. They're drinking heavily and getting more and more annoying.

Curtains come back and the Spazzys take the stage, a 3 girl punk band. I like them a whole lot more. Bubble gum punk, sort of Runaways but with some Do Run Run Run in there. Lots of whoa-whoa, fast simple songs about my guy loves me, and they close with a theme song, Let's Get Spazzy, to boot. I think a theme song is generally a good thing for bands. Well, the Jonathans had one and they weren't that great but I still admire the effort.

The curtain is pulled again and the same tape plays again, some vaguely familiar 70s Brit punk pop (something like Toy Dolls or something) and then loops yet again. I guess they don't have much canned music for 70s Brit punk shows. I'm working hard keeping my spot, standing firm against the Blackberry crowd to my left and annoying dancing woman on the right, jamming her purse into me constantly (back turned dancing, or drunkenly lurching). No point in elbowing her or anything, probably too drunk to feel it until tomorrow. Until she starts tapping my shoulder, wanting to say some stupid things, ignore her, maybe she will go away.

Hurray, the Buzzcocks come on. Pete Shelley and Steve Diggle and the two new guys. Both look a bit like they were in the Kaiser Chiefs. I look up the bass player later, apparently his London band gets compared to the Buzzcocks a lot, so appropriate then. I couldn't really see the drummer much, but he sounded fine. The bass playing was fine too, he just kept staring at the crowd though, it just seemed really strange.

They launch into Different Kitchen. You know, I'm not so sure about the whole album in its entirety format. I like the songs on the album and am familiar with them, but not to the extent of the singles. I still think the Buzzcocks are the king of singles. Insane that you could come up with that many awesome singles in just a few years, when you are still in your teens. It is a bit strange that they have to stand and wait for the sound effects (phone at the beginning of No Reply, for example) and all the Can inspired noodling around on some of the other songs (i.e.,Moving Away From the Pulsebeat). It felt a bit constrained playing the album instead of just playing songs. Still, I totally perk up for Autonomy (my favorite song) and some of the other ones.

They finish up the album and Steve and Pete do a bit of a high five with each other, good going, got it done, then into Love Bites. Ok, now this is getting a lot better, Real World, really starting to rock. Love Bites has a lot better songs, a lot more rocking. Just Lust is a bit of a mess but still pretty cool. Steve keeps drinking champaign and pointing his guitar up, sort of cheezy rock star moves but still fun. He gets his acoustic guitar for Love Is Lies and does a great version. After they finish up, they leave the stage one at a time, leaving the drummer to close it out.

Obviously they have to play more. Isn't it just expected that bands play encores anymore. They know why everybody came tonight, back on stage and into Orgasm Addict, What Do I Get, Ever Fallen In Love, Promises and then finish with Harmony In My Head. It is all pretty cool. I have to say, I saw them in Liverpool a couple of years ago and I thought they were a lot better. Partly because it was like the encore, single after single, all of them fantastic, with an occasional album track thrown in, still I go home happy. Well, I head out into the ridiculous rain storm (pretty torrential by now) and see about getting home. Hopefully the rain hasn't messed up the trains like it often does.

The sweater song

2009-10-15T17:22:00.006+11:00

Hard-Ons (25th Anniversary Tour) with Dr El Suavo in between acts, Killer Birds, and Useless Children
Sat 10 Oct 2009, Corner Hotel, Melbourne

Back to the Corner Hotel again. They have had lots of things there lately. I'm a bit late getting there and they seem to run their shows pretty much on time. I get there as Killer Birds are finishing up their last two songs. A 3 piece girl punk/grunge band, seems a shame that I got there late. They seem to have a pretty decent rocking 70s old school punk sound. Their webpage mentions The Runaways which seems to fit. I make a mental note to check them out again.

Dr El Suavo takes the stage, as the MC for the evening. It is a fairly strange act, a mildly crude comedy act with magic tricks wearing a Mexican wrestling mask and a fez. The magic is inoffensive, lots of stuff you can pick up at magic shops like the 3 rings that magically link and unlink or bottles that hide shot tumblers inside. Even if you don't know the exact trick behind each, you have a pretty good idea how it is done. I guess he can cover that up by with his crude stage act. I guess also by working in props like dildos and drinking a lot of his props after each trick. It works for what it is, that 15 minutes or so between acts is generally pretty boring as they set up for the next band. He stands in the corner doing his act while they set up the stage. Kind of entertainment multi-tasking.

Useless Children take the stage next. It seems like the sound sucked all night at the show. Generally the Corner has decent sound but something about it is just muddy and buzzy all night. Useless Children are a noisy trio (girl drummer, which seems to be a pretty common arrangement for Melbourne bands). I can't really distinguish any of the vocals above the noise. The girl on drums sings most of them, growling through most of it. The rest of it is a decent wall of sound but nothing grabs me in it and I zone out a bit during it. The crowd is a fairly young one tonight with lots of different punk t-shirts. The guy in front of me has a Minor Threat one on and my mind wanders thinking of different Minor Threat songs I like or trying to think of the noisiest punkiest show I can remember seeing (I come up with the Cro-Mags, they were Harley's War that night though).

Mostly they kind of remind me of all those bands on old Maximum Rocknroll compilations, the ones with like 70 different bands. The Flipper or Dead Kennedys track was pretty decent but then there were about 68 other bands that kind of all sounded the same, whether they were singing in English or Italian or whatever.

Dr El Suavo comes back on and does some more tricks involving rubber chickens and then does his straitjacket escape. He yells at the audience to pay attention and clap while he dislocates his shoulder and suffers for the trick.

I guess a lot of the shows I've seen so far in Australia are a lot of them that I heard back in the 80s, some of my Australia imports. So most of them are on their 20-30 year reunions, reliving past glories and the rest of that. The Hard-Ons are doing their 25th anniversary, although they point out they were broken up for a number of those years in between. So far it seems like it has been a decent strategy, I see bands I liked way back when and get a handle on other bands around through the opening acts. I had a Hard-Ons record back then, mostly I just liked Girl In A Sweater and the rest of it was decent bubble gum punk. At least that's what I remember, I haven't heard it in a while. They play Girl In A Sweater for their encore then something quite speedy after that. The rest of the set was nice but not great. Or maybe it was just the sound, something about it was really awful.

So, another oldies band ticked off my list.

99 bottles of beer on the wall...

2009-09-30T12:59:00.004+10:00

Ok, more like 52 bottles. Just got the second batch of beer bottled, an English bitter this time. The golden ale, my first batch, is just starting to get good after ageing for a few months now. These should be ready in a month or so. Hmm, what next?

I was in the house when the house burned down

2009-09-20T15:47:00.006+10:00

Chapterfest - 19 September 2009 - Tote Hotel, Melbourne
Bum Creek, Dick Diver, Primitive Calculators, the Twerps, Jeremy Dower Y Las Palmeras de plÃ¡stico, Hit the Jackpot, Minimum Chips, Pikelet, and Tenniscoats

This is a good way to see bands. 9 bands over an evening, about 30 minutes each. No time to get too bored if any of them are not so great.

When I get there, Bum Creek are already playing. Or something like that. I guess they would be like freeform noise jazz, or something along those lines. There are some genres of music, no matter if I actually like the music or not, that just make laugh, like Norwegian death metal, for example. Oh, they intend for some gigantic warrior god to come crashing out of the sky and crush you like a bug and bury you under a mile of snow and melt it all again with flames, and whatever, but when they are screaming and playing as fast as they can, I just giggle a bit.

But freeform jazz too, it makes me chuckle. There are three of them, two playing various combinations of keyboards and horns and trumpets and bouncing things off tambourines, and then one guy on drums and percussion (more percussion than drums). They have magnificent facial hair and run around like apes, hovering over their keyboards, pounding on them, playing with with their feet, and making a racket. It is a performance that would fit right into a WFMU broadcast. The one song goes like 20 minutes and towards the middle, they have a pretty good groove, a nice rhythm and assortment of noises, but towards the end they start to lose me and I get a little bored. I guess I mostly liked it, but I'm not sure. People clap and cheer at the end and the band makes a performance out of cheering and yelling themselves for another minute or two, the drummer plays the walls and ceiling, and then it is done.

Better zip up upstairs and check out Dick Diver. It is pretty good too, two stages alternating, so you don't have to wait for the boring setting up and tearing down between bands. Now, Dick Diver, I really liked them. They look so young. Maybe it is just me but I hear just so much Go-Betweens in a lot of these Chapter bands. They have a quiet sound, long chord progressions, sort of half spoken singing, but they also have a nice bit of noise and feedback underneath it all. A pretty good set, I'll have to check them out again sometime.

When I get back downstairs, Primitive Calculators are playing. It is a funny setup on stage, looking like a rock band but with a guy sitting in the middle at a table behind a laptop. Looks a bit like he is telecommuting or something. But he is running the drum machine from it. I wonder if he just sampled their original drum machine because the beats are totally crude and primitive, between him and the bass, they totally have a great Suicide sound. It would have been cool to seen them launch into Frankie Teardrop (and not Joy Division like some dork kept yelling from the audience). Or maybe a Metal Urbain primitiveness without the shouting in French.

Primitive Calculators are pretty legendary, starting back in the late 70s with the rest of punk, but unlike the Birthday Party and others they hung out with, didn't quite make it and then took 29 years off. A shame, because they are pretty cool. So, a cheezy sounding keyboard and bass player playing simple driving things, and guitar player making lots of noise and bellowing total nonsense. One song was like '1979, nothing, 1980, nothing, 1981, ...'. Maybe that was a band history song. So, yeah, I guess they are playing around more now, so I'll have to check them out again.

Then upstairs, I'm a little disappointed by the Twerps. They opened for the Bats a month or so ago and I thought they were great then. Tonight, they seem a bit off, out of tune, not quite together, I don't know what it was, it just didn't do it for me like they did the last time. It is probably a tough stage to play, the upstairs one, crammed back into an alcove and everybody watching has to crowd into a long hallway to see anything.

Back downstairs to see Jeremy Dower Y Las Palmeras de plÃ¡stico. I wasn't too into them either. Jeremy Dower plays a pedal steel guitar, the other two guys on a handheld touch electronic percussion pad and the other guy alternating between an unusual pipe and a keyboard. Jazz with an Hawaiian guitar edge, maybe?

Upstairs again to see Hit the Jackpot. Maybe I'm getting tired by now but they didn't do it for me either. They all rotate instruments a lot, so maybe that helps a bit with the variety, but still there is a bit of sameness in it all, rather simple noisy songs (a description not a judgement). Now, I really like the intros to a lot of the songs, they start rocking but then into the song and it just didn't seem to go anywhere. It was the small upstairs stage again, maybe I'll have to give them another chance in a different venue.

Minimum Chips are playing downstairs by the time I get back down. I guess they have been around for a while but haven't played together for a while too. Guy is playing bass for them now, sort of busy basslines. They have a nice cheezy keyboard sound and a bit of jangle in the guitars. I imagine Stereolab has been mentioned in conjunction with them before. They are nice but I'm pretty tired by now.

Upstairs for Pikelet. The place is really packed by now and I'm stuck back in a corner and can't really see much of anything. They have a little trouble getting set up and it takes a few songs to get the sound right. Two keyboards and an acoustic guitar, and guitar and drums. Kind of spacey psychedelic overtures then switching into quiet acoustic guitar parts. Interesting, I wish I could have seen some of it.

I'm about ready to pack it in. Downstairs Tenniscoats are playing. They have elaborate acoustic guitar pieces with a Japanese woman singing very softly (I assume in Japanese) over it and sometimes playing a pipe or keyboard. I listen to a few songs but just couldn't connect to it. It is time to go home.

Takeaways then, really liked Primitive Calculators and Dick Diver and need to give the Twerps, Pikelet, and Minimum Chips another go.
Primitive Calculators

Pikelet

Bum Creek

Search and destroy

2009-08-09T19:40:00.003+10:00

8 August 2009 - New Christs / Bowerbirds / Lindsay Low Hand - Tote Hotel

The Tote is a little further afield, down in Collinwood, but not much. Some idiots in a car squirt water at me from a squirt gun. If that is the most exciting thing they have to do on a Saturday night, that's a bit sad.

This show was pretty recently announced and I was pretty excited. Of all the 80s Australian punk bands that I was familiar with back in the US, they weren't the absolute best but they were still pretty good. I don't know whether I'll get to see the Saints or Scientists or some of the others, but I can get a start on it here. I had tickets to see Radio Birdman a year ago when I was living in London, but it was cancelled at the last second because they had immigration problems. It seems as they broke up again soon after that. Rob Younger has gone back to the New Christs now, so I guess this will be the closest I'll get to see them then.

$10 to get in, pretty good. There are about 6 people there when I get there and a lot of them seem to be the first band, Lindsay Low Hand. They start a few minutes later, playing to their few friends who are there and keep thanking anybody who is there for showing up early. I wouldn't say that I hated them but they were not all that great. I guess having named themselves after some topical celebrity, perhaps some sort of ironic statement about her crashing descent and the rest of that, or something.

80s sort of hardcore, fairly predictable stuff, stuff I remember seeing at like Gate 5 of Folsom Stadium (basically a classroom) where different hardcore bands were allowed to play - Acid Pigs or some others like that, can't remember who I saw but then I probably won't remember Lindsay Low Hand all that long either. Seems funny, the singer/guitar player really went nuts and screamed and jumped around and played his guitar harder but somehow it didn't really seem to show up in the sound. They only do about 30 minutes, so no worries then.

Bowerbirds are up next. They have a pretty appropriate look considering how they sound. There is a bandanna hanging off their mic stand, several of them have those 60s Beatles boots and haircuts like the Monkees. They have a real 70s edge to them, I'm thinking Peter Frampton, 70s NYC punk, a few other things. Not that they sound a lot like that, but there is just something about them that remind me of that sort of 70s sound. It gets me thinking too about what makes a band pretty mediocre and what makes one really good. They have some much more presence than Lindsay Low Hand. Whether that is sort of a swagger or the way they attack songs, or just express something up there. The music can even be pretty similar to worse bands but something about the presentation and spirit can lift it up. Ok, they weren't amazing but they were entertaining. I especially liked the fuzzy 12 string guitar they started out on.

The New Christs take the stage and look the part of old grizzled punk stars. Rob Younger has thinning old hair and looks suitable craggy. Jim Dickson, who played bass for them in the past, I think is totally cool. He looks like an old prep school English teacher, well, vaguely like Mr Kirkpatrick (or at least the essence of him) from my own past. His bass is well used, totally worn through the finish where his hand rests, like he has played it every day for the last 25 years (maybe he has). He is pretty cool playing too. Maybe that's what makes bands good. They all go at it, involved in their own things, attacking the song independently but it all fits together too. The two guitars sound good together as well as the occasional cheezy organ.

They are supporting their new album, which I haven't heard yet, so most of the stuff isn't familiar. Mostly it is fun watching Jim attack the bass and Rob gesturing and pointing and dancing. In the end, they do a ripping cover of Magazine's Shot By Both Sides and tear though Like A Curse, which rules. It gets the biggest cheer of the night from the probably 150 people there by the end. Nice show and a quick cycle home.

8/08/2009 9:00 PM - New Christs (album launch) + Bowerbirds + Lindsay Low Hand, Melbourne, Victoria 3066
- The Tote Hotel
Having just returned from a month long European tour that saw them play the huge Azkena Rock Festival in Spain (alongside Alice Cooper, The Black Crowes, The Breeders and more), Sydney band The New Christs are now setting their sights on home territory with the release of their latest album ‘Gloria’ and an east coast tour set for August. It has been an interesting journey since Radio Birdman front man Rob Younger formed The New Christs in 1984 to support Iggy Pop on his Australian tour of that year. A number of single releases featuring several line ups followed before the band recorded and released their debut album ‘Distemper’ in 1989. Over the next decade they would go through a number of line up changes, tour Australia in support of legendary bands such as Ramones and regularly take their live show to Europe. Following their release of the album album ‘We Got This’ in 2003 the band split while Rob focused on producing bands and touring with the reformed Radio Birdman. It was 2006 when the current version of The New Christs formed when former bass player Jim Dickson returned to the band and new recruits Stu Wilson(drums), Dave Kettley(guitar) and Brent Williams(guitar) lead the band into a new era. With two European tours under their belt, the band began work on The New Christs next full length album in December 2008. The result is ‘Gloria’, already received strongly overseas by its dedicated fan base, the band now tour their home country in support of the release after returning from their third European tour with this line up. The New Christs ’Gloria’ is in stores nationally on August 1st 2009.

Release the bats

2009-08-08T16:34:00.006+10:00

The Bats / Crayon Fields / The Twerps - Northcote Social Club - 7 August 2009

The Northcote Social Club, only a 10 minute bike ride (up a huge hill though), so cool to be close to things. After a nice pizza and calzone dinner, the Twerps have just started playing when we get there. Ahh, I really like them. I hadn't heard them before but it is a nice surprise. It is obvious they have been listening to a lot of Go-Betweens records and at times I get a bit of a Feelies-Crazy Rhythms feeling.

The drummer is quite laid back. At one point, he almost worked up a sweat. The music has a nice quiet slow jangleness. They are quite young. The guitar/singer plays simple things and occasionally stomps on the distortion for almost ridiculous noisy guitar breaks (ala Dinosaur Jr) which make me laugh every time. The girl lead guitar plays a nice texture of notes underneath (almost a surf guitar sound) also giving it a slight pleasing discordance. It really does have that Go-Betweens two guitar interplay sound. At one point somebody in the audience yells to turn her up. Half way through the next song, she keeps gesturing to the soundman to turn it back down. It really does fit in better with the sound when it is a nice texture just under the music. But I thought they were great, I'll go see them again if they are around. Apparently they have only been around for about a year.

Next up, the Crayon Fields. I've heard them mentioned around but hadn't heard them before either. I have to say, they had some magnificent sweaters (jumpers). It must have been a band requirement because they all had total 80s sweaters on. They have quite a full sound. Like the Twerps, they are also slower but there is a lot more going on. The 2nd guitar player plays a whole lot more notes and sometimes fills with a keyboard. There is a lot of different percussion, shaking different things at points. It gives them a highly produced sound, sort of Belle and Sebastian like. The singing is funny, I don't think he was Japanese but it has that slightly stilted sound of English being a second language. None of their songs seem to go on for more than about 2 1/2 minutes. I enjoyed them, although I like the Twerps more, since they were a lot more fun.

They pull the curtain across the stage and the place really fills up. It was a sold out show and it was packed wall to wall. That's probably why 2/3rd through their set, I feel quite faint from the heat and have to go find somewhere to sit down for a while. Now Flying Nun when I was just getting into music years ago, it was sort of the holy grail for me, legendary, hard to find, and so exciting when I finally got to hear some. Before the days of the internet, the only way to hear any of it was to break down and pay like $20 for a crazy expensive import single. So, I had some Tall Dwarfs, Clean, etc, but I didn't have any Bats. How exciting though, my first Flying Nun band to see live.

The Bats

I guess of all the Flying Nun bands I've heard, to my ears, they seem to be the most Australian sounding of them. I mean they don't have quite that frenetic jangling, but sound more solidly folk, with that Australian ballad, sort of Triffids sort of thing going on. In a sort of theme of the evening, they also have a girl lead guitar who plays lots of notes and textures under the main sound and sings on some songs, giving them nice harmonies. They haven't toured for years and the audience eats them up. The band seems slightly blown away by it, promising to come back soon, not quite expecting the turnout they got tonight. They play a pretty good set, only really marred by me nearly passing out towards the end. Although of all of them, I actually kind of liked the Twerps most of all from the evening. Ahh, Melbourne does have some pretty good music about.

Crayon Fields

The Twerps

THE BATS (NZ) with The Crayon Fields and The Twerps SOLD OUT! ** The Twerps 9pm * The Crayon Fields 10:10pm * The Bats 11:20pm to 12:20am ** Mistletone presents The Bats in their first Australian shows in ages! The legendary New Zealand band have been playing their distinctive style of melodic infused pop folk/rock for long enough to have drifted in and out of fashion several times, without even trying. The Bats top many a music aficionado’s list as well as sparking for today’s savvy young music initiates. The Bats are set to release their wonderful new album ‘The Guilty Office’ as they head to our shores for the first time in six years with the same brilliant line-up since the band’s conception in 1983: Robert Scott, Kaye Woodward, Paul Kean and Malcolm Grant.

50 concerts I saw... (There's no business like show business)

2009-08-06T04:53:00.001+10:00

I've been meaning to compiling a list of all the shows I've seen, or at least a lot of the first shows. I'm still pretty sure that REM was my first, but not completely sure. So, mostly shows from the 80s and my best guess at the year as well as opening bands and venue.

Test your memory and your love of live music by listing 50 artists or bands (or as many as you can remember) you've seen in concert. List the first 50 acts that come into your head. An act you saw at a festival and opening acts count, but only if you can't think of 50 other artists. Oh, and list the first concert you ever saw.

Should you choose this challenge, here's what you do:
Copy my note. Click on "notes" under tabs on your profile page (if you don't find it right away click on the +). Select "write a new note" in the top corner. Paste the copy in the body of the note. Make your list of 50, with a new title for your note. Once you've saved, don't forget to tag friends (including me) on the right.

1 - R.E.M. (Young Weasels/Computer Class) - Rainbow 1983 (First concert, I think)
2 - Echo and the Bunnymen (Billy Bragg) - Rainbow 1984
3 - Violent Femmes (Fishbone) - Rainbow 1984
4 - Eurythmics - Red Rocks 1984
5 - Blasters (Beat Farmers) - Rainbow 1985
6 - Black Flag (Minutemen, Meat Puppets) - Rainbow 1985
7 - Swans (DC3) - Eagles Lodge 1986
8 - Husker Du - Blue Note 1985
9 - New Order - Rainbow 1985
10 - New Order (Echo and the Bunnymen/X) - Red Rocks 1986
11 - U2 (The Alarm) - Events Center 1984
12 - Elvis Costello (Aztec Camera) - Events Center 1983
13 - R.E.M (10000 Maniacs) - Events Center 1985
14 - Sonic Youth (Cage of Reason, Happy World) - German House 1986
15 - Sonic Youth - Aztlan 1987
16 - Nick Cave - Aztlan 1986
17 - Suburbs - Rainbow 1984
18 - Butthole Surfers - Normans 1985
19 - Butthole Surfers - Glen Miller Room 1986
20 - Replacements (Government Cheese) - Glen Miller Room 1986
21 - Rank and File - Boulder Reservoir 1983
22 - Billy Bragg - Blue Note 1984
23 - Billy Bragg (16 Horsepower) - Denver 1991
24 - Warlock Pinchers - A lot 1985-
25 - Boi (Pavilion Steps, Phil Wang, Shades of Grey) - Boulder Depot 1985
26 - Minus Bill 1986
27 - Siousxie and the Banshees - Rainbow 1986
28 - The Fall - Rainbow 1986
29 - Jonathan Richman (and some comedian) 1987
30 - The Fluid (Brother Rat) - Littleton Town Hall 1986
31 - fIREHOSE 1986
32 - Pavilion Steps (Sons of T, Decembrists, Mr Butler Died Here) - Littleton Town Hall 1985
33 - Bloodflower 1985
34 - B.A.D. - Mammoth Events Center 1986
35 - Midnight Oil - Red Rocks 1986
36 - Screaming Trees - Quigleys 1986
37 - Electric Third Rail (Free Lint) - Quigleys 1986
38 - Black Flag (Gone, Happy World) - Aztlan 1986
39 - Joe "King" Carasco - Glenn Miller Ballroom 1986
40 - Angst (Soul Merchants) - Clarkson St 1986
41 - Happy World (Shut Up Bitch, Gun Nuts) - Lawrence KS. 1986
42 - Tex and the Horseheads - Blue Note 1985
43 - Swans - 1987
44 - Crash Worship - Penny Lane 1986
45 - Lorena McKennit - Boulder 1989
46 - Steel Pole Bathtub - Quigleys + other places 1986
47 - Gary US Bonds -Glenn Miller Ballroom 1987
48 - Big Head Todd and the Monsters - weekly at the UMC FACs 1987
49 - The Cure - Red Rocks/Rainbow/Events Center 1986/1984/1985
50 - Fishbone - Glenn Miller Ballroom - 1987

Did you ever see a flower and hate it?

2009-06-25T20:45:00.002+10:00

7 June 2009 - Nation Blue, X, Flipper at the Espy, St Kilda.

I've been waiting for this one for a while. I've had tickets for weeks. I still have regrets for not seeing Flipper way back in like 1984 and then there were years of not seeing much to make up for as well. Again though, I get there way too early. The tram is fairly quick and it only takes about 20 minutes or so to get there.

The Espy is one of the multitude of hotels (and pubs) around Melbourne. The front steps are dominated by smokers. The front room on the bottom level has some pretty lame band playing, background music for drinking. I head upstairs to pick up my ticket and get to the ballroom. It is a nice venue, lots of strange accents on the wall like antlers and Moroccan looking curvy fake doorways.

Nation Blue is up first. I had listened to a few of their songs on Myspace and wasn't so excited about seeing them. I couldn't get much from them, quite get a handle on what they were from those. I'm still not sure I have much of a handle on them but I did enjoy their set. Their drummer was great, quite powerful. It made their songs a strange mix of slower guitar stuff, chunka-chunka-rest chunka-chunka-rest, while the drummer was off doing double time thrash drumming. Somehow it all fit together and made a nice wall of noise. Probably helped that it didn't seem to be so important what the guitar guy was playing, he was fond of flipping his guitar around and sometimes playing it by rubbing it on his back, so it didn't seem to matter so much about notes and rhythm, it still fit in with the rest of the sound. And I like a band who runs around on stage, running into things, kicking amps, and the rest of that. I can't remember any of the songs now but I did like them.

I was really excited to see X at this show. It is a lot of why I wanted to come to the show in the first place. There is the X from LA that everybody has heard of, this is the other X, from Australia. Back in my youth, I was quite excited about obscure stuff from the other side of the world. Maybe they were not so obscure in Australia, but in America they were pretty much unknown. My trips to Wax Trax would yield me nice gems that no many others in the US were listening to, Celibate Rifles, Triffids, Go-Betweens, etc and when I really splurged (way expensive imports, something on Flying Nun Records from NZ. But I had At Home With You back then and really liked it.

X lost their original bass player a few years ago (cancer, I believe) but their lineup now is substantially the same as back in the At Home With You days. But when it comes down to it, X is mostly about (Steve) and his guitar and pretty distinctive gravelly voice. The sound at the show was mixed pretty much so that dominated the sound and it worked fine. The bass player had a five stringed bass and seemed to fit in fine. The drumming is laid back and certainly not the powerhouse that Nation Blue has, but she kept good time and filled out the sound a little bit. But like I said, the sound and rhythm all came from the guitar. He has a cool stripped down sound on his guitar, back from like old school punk, New York Dolls sort of rawness. They played a good set of all their old songs, All Over Now is really a magnificent song, and it was so cool to finally see them.

Ahh, Flipper. It is strange to see the crowd at the show. Probably about 1/3 is older people, kind of my age, who grew up in the 80s and for who punk was still something fairly new. I was a bit too young and musically unaware to really engage with the original punk scene, but by the early to mid 80s, when New Wave was totally in and the 2nd wave of punk was coming out, I was totally in with that. Flipper then was slightly old school but still coming up with new things. The other 2/3 of the audience looked to be in their early 20s, probably first heard Flipper on iTunes, but a lot of them sing along with everything.

Ted comes on, looks a bit like a dirty crusty hippie, long dreadlock, although it is greying. Steve reminds me a lot of Bobby from the Sopranos (the one married to Janice). He comes on stage and takes pictures of everything, the stage, the hall, and the audience. Rachel, the new bass player has harlequin stockings, a skirt, and saddle shoes. Bruce really surprises me, he comes on looking like he is just headed to the office, at least a business casual one, sort of nice trousers and shirt. They fuss around getting themselves ready. Bruce admits that even after 30 years, he still gets butterflies before going on. It is his 50th birthday today too. Wow.

So, it is basically the old Flipper but Will died years ago, and they have tried an assortment of bass players since then. Kriss Novelasek (of Nirvana fame) was the most recent one and was instrumental in getting them back together recently for an All Tomorrow's Parties and their most recent album. But he decided he didn't want to tour, so Rachel (formerly in Frightwig) joined just a month or so ago. She starts and she has the Flipper bass sound, super distorted, slow deliberate bass lines. Seems perfect and she seems to fit in with the rest of them pretty well. Ted makes a blizzard of noise on guitar (playing mostly bar chords and lots of notes in between to fill it all). He has a cool airline seat belt guitar strap too. Steve keeps pace and hits hard and Bruce screams. It is good.

They seem quite happy tonight. There is a big crowd, a few hundred, and they are thrilled. Apparently in Perth and Adelaide the few nights before, there were only a dozen or so at the show. But Melbourne is a lot cooler than those places. So, they play a long set and even play Sex Bomb, which I hear has been left out of a lot of recent shows. For that one, Bruce takes the bass and Rachel stands by and takes pictures. Random audience members wander up onto stage and sing. Another mic wanders around the front of the crowd near the stage and people scream into that. I'm front and center, right up to the stage and it is great there being close, except for the annoying slam dancers who keep running into me. That and the few people with cameras with huge lenses that take about 600 photographs. But slam dancing, you know, that annoyed me even in the 80s and I haven't enjoyed it much since then. It reminds me of seeing the Cro-mags at CGBGs a few years ago and having to wedge a table between me and the drunken idiots running around trying to smash into people. You know, if you want to dance and run into each other, yeah fine, but aiming at people who don't really want to is annoying. This was just like 5 people too, so not all that many.

They play lots of songs, Ha Ha Ha, Life, Sacrifice, well, a mix of old and new. It is everything I expected it would be. The new stuff sounds like the old stuff, which is just fine with me. They go late and I miss the last tram at 145 by a few minutes and have to walk the 20 minutes home instead, but it feels good to be out and stretching after standing for that long. Seen Flipper and X, can tick that off my life list now.

Flipper

Too little, too late - (Little corella) - Photo of the day

2009-05-22T10:34:00.002+10:00

2 May 2009 - St Kilda

So, another disappointing picture of a corella, sadly the best one that I have in Melbourne. Not as many pretty colorful birds here as in WA, and when they are around, it is a smallish flock flying overhead to a far off tree. Saw these above a football field next to the farmers market we went to a few weeks ago.

Safety Is the cootie wootie (Australian (Eurasian) coot) - Photo of the day

2009-05-22T08:16:00.002+10:00

3 May 2009 - Albert Park, Melbourne

Ok, so they are super common, I know. Most parks and waterways have them. There are a lot more of them than moorhens too, which I always mix up with coots.

She's a rainbow (Rainbow lorikeet) - Photo of the day

2009-05-21T10:37:00.002+10:00

2 May 2009 - St Kilda

I haven't seen as many parrots and parakeets in Melbourne as I did in western Australia. But there are a few pockets of them. There are a few that seem to always hang out in a tree overhanging the railroad tracks a block away from here. It is hard taking a good picture of them, they are prettiest when they are in flight, otherwise they are hidden in the trees.

What is it up in the air for? - (White plumed honey eater) - Photo of the day

2009-05-20T10:40:00.000+10:00

13 April 2009 - West Gate, Melbourne

I'm pretty sure this is a white plumed honey eater but am not completely sure. It never settled down long enough for me to get a good look. It zipped all over then was diving in the water and up and around for another run. Just sort of caught one of its splashes in the water.

Mongoloid he was a mongoloid - (mallard/Pacific black duck hybrid) - Picture of the day

2009-05-19T10:19:00.002+10:00

3 May 2009 - Albert Park, Melbourne

They are pretty but they appear to be a little bit of everything. I think this one is a mallard/Pacific black duck hybrid, or some other duck combination.

There's a big bird over my house - (Australian pelican) - Photo of the day

2009-05-18T10:31:00.001+10:00

3 May 2009 - Albert Park, Melbourne

Ahh, pelicans have been a nice thing to see. When they are flying, they tend to circle up high, looking a lot like a bird of prey. When they are up close and in the water, they are generally scooping up water and seeing what they have caught in their beak, like this one.

Posing at the Roundhouse - (Red wattle bird) - Photo of the day

2009-05-17T10:42:00.001+10:00

8 April 2009 - Fitzroy Gardens, Melbourne

I don't see them all that often, but when I do, they seem to be great at posing for pictures, not moving all that fast and being right out in the open.

Gotta let this hen out - (Dusky moorhen) - Photo of the day

2009-05-16T10:45:00.001+10:00

11 April 2009 - Melbourne

Ok, kind of a crappy picture, I know. It was running off on the side of a bike trail. Not ideal conditions to get a good picture. There are zillion of coots around but not so many moorhens.

Ol' yellow eyes is back - (Spur winged plover) - Photo of the day

2009-05-15T10:24:00.001+10:00

3 May 2009 - Albert Park, Melbourne

I have been mistaking these for lapwings for the longest time. I just don't think of them as plovers either considering I usually see them in parks and not wading in mud and they seem too big to be plovers. They are fairly common around the area.

Diver down - (Little pied cormorant)- Photo of the day

2009-05-14T10:11:00.001+10:00

3 May 2009 - Albert Park, Melbourne

I quite like cormorants. They are one of the few of the sea birds that I thought were so cool in the UK, like guillemots, razorbills, and puffins, the cormormants (shags are being phased out in naming conventions) are one of the few carry overs of all of those in the southern hemisphere. You either see them hanging out on the end of docks with their wings spread trying to dry them out or out in the middle of the water constantly diving and diving again.

Poisoning pigeons in the park - (Crested pigeon) - Photo of the day

2009-05-13T10:43:00.001+10:00

2 April 2009 - Melbourne

So, I'm not such a huge fan of pigeons in general but the crested pigeons are much prettier than the normal ones. They are not quite as common as other pigeons, so I've only seen them a few times here.

Swan Swan H - (Black swan) - Photo of the day

2009-05-12T10:20:00.001+10:00

3 May 2009 - Albert Park, Melbourne

So, if you are in Australia, you will see the black swan at some time. Up until their discovery, swans were always white. The black swan has become a saying for something unexpected that changes everything. They are nice looking swans too.

Fashion plague - (Indian myna) - Photo of the day

2009-05-11T10:38:00.003+10:00

April 2009 - Melbourne

So, I'm pretty much over the myna bird. They seemed charming and cute when we were in Thailand. Now in Melbourne, they are all over and are worse then pigeons. Apparently in the 1860s, somebody had the bright idea to introduce them as insect control for the markets. They didn't do a very good job of that but adapted quite well to urban life and then just became incredibly invasive and negatively impacted a lot of the other native species. Oops.

I am the king of the divan

2009-05-10T16:12:00.002+10:00

Saturday 9th May 2009 - The Old Bar, Fitzroy
New Estate
Elizabeth Pistol Club
Midnight Caller
Ashtray Boy

Tram downtown and then over to Brunswick Street. It is the first time I've been over in that area. My current area is a bit posh/fake/cafe culture, so it is a welcome change. Dinner first at a Chinese restaurant. I have been looking for mapo dofu as good as I ate in China. I try it here and it is fine but not the same. They also have lots of Mao things scattered all over, I feel souvenir regret again, not buying that cool Chairman Mao poster of him waving hello with sunlight coming out of his fingers from that one shop in Beijing. Damn. We bought lots of Vietnamese posters which are pretty cool but that doesn't completely make up for missing that. You know, it was the first week of China and it was all over the place, but once we got further south, there wasn't as much cool stuff like that around. And carrying it around for another few months (or shipping it home), put us off a little bit. Oh well, next once in a lifetime trip then. Dinner takes forever, which is another difference from China where most meals arrived a few seconds after ordering. Also, it was rather expensive, unlike China. But I should stick to the subject here.

Ashtray Boy is already playing when we get there. Apparently they have been around for decades (mid 80s), constantly shifting lineups except for Dr Lee, the guitar player. Liz Phair sang on a few of their songs back before she was famous. A friend of C's is playing drums for them now. They are nice. A bit mellow, indy, jangly, low keyed. I wish I could hear more of the vocals, just barely above the music in the mix. I guess I think they are a bit like the Feelies but a little bit slower.

Midnight Caller are up next. Damn, I should have brought ear plugs. I need to include that in my going out kit in the future. Now I like loud music and all but I feel a little cheated about this one. I think there was something about the bass player that really bugged me and he turned out to be the main abuser of volume. He was soundchecking Metallica bass lines before they started and at times used ridiculously fuzzy distortion and really liked whacking things with his bass to make loud clunks. (The sound guy seemed decidedly unamused when he smashed the mic stand and the microphone was rolling all over the floor.) Now done correctly, I'd be on my feet cheering that sort of thing but it just seemed like noise that didn't really fit the rest of the music. I liked the bits where he just kind of played normally or even better where it was just the two guys on guitar throwing back and forth fuzzy jangly point counterpoint almost trance like sounds. The vocals didn't really register much over all the music, so I'm not sure of they were good or bad. It was easy to kind of let it wash over you and let your mind wander. I was thinking back about things I had seen way back, I had recently unearthed some old concert fliers and realized, wow, I had seen Sonic Youth for $4, or Nick Cave for $7 on Halloween, or seeing the Swans at some crappy warehouse, or, ahh good times.

Elizabeth Pistol Club, they were kind of cool. The guitar player was on the other side so I couldn't see or hear a lot of him. The bass player had a bass with high cutouts so he could play even higher notes and tended to play mostly quite high and lots of chords. He also sort of sang, almost low talking. They had a girl drummer, she hit hard and had lots of fairly complicated patterns, was pretty good but really kept screwing up the last song, off by a beat or so every so often and everybody had to pull it back together. They seemed to be having fun though. She played a lot of toms and with the low singing and the way the guitar sounded, it reminded me a whole lot of Dance With Me era T.S.O.L. or maybe a less industrial Savage Republic.

Unfortunately, public transit in Melbourne doesn't go much past 1 so we couldn't stay for the entire set for New Estate. Apparently they have been around for years and years too. They were quite fun, lo-fi jangly, quite distorted electric piano, and everybody switched off singing. I kept thinking of Sonic Youth covering Ca Plane Pour Moi. We only got to see about five songs before we had to run to catch one of the last trams. Next time, ear plugs and a bike so I won't have to be at the mercy of the tram schedules.

Thus quote the raven, nevermore - (Pied or grey corrawong) - Photo of the day

2009-05-10T10:38:00.001+10:00

1 May 2009 - Windsor, Melbourne

I didn't get a great view of it, this one was taken through a window, so I'm not completely sure if it was a pied or grey. Either way, they look totally cool.

I Was Kaiser Bill's Batman - (Whistling kite) - Photo of the day

2009-05-09T10:35:00.001+10:00

2 May 2009 - St Kilda

Ok, this one was pretty cool too, a whistling kite leisurely wandering across the sky, followed by a few other birds, paying no attention to them.

I am the owl (Southern boobook) - Photo of the day

2009-05-08T10:14:00.001+10:00

3 May 2009 - Albert Park, Melbourne

This was probably my favorite bird sighting so far in Australia. A small owl, the southern boobook, who was startled out of its tree, stumbled around in the daylight a little bit before finding its way back to its hiding place in the tree.

Everybody's talking (Melbourne birds)

2009-05-07T10:04:00.002+10:00

Birds of Melbourne

I know what everybody is thinking, bird pictures. Have you seen any birds in Melbourne? Funny you should ask, I have seen a bunch of them and even compiled a list as well as some photographs of them, which I'll post in the next few days.

Rainbow lorikeet
Pied (or grey) currawong
Pacific gull
Silver gull
Little pied cormorant
Little black cormorant
Rock dove
Indian myna
Starling
House sparrow
Song thrush
Blackbird
Australian (Eurasian) coot
Dusky moorhen
Willie wagtail
Butcher bird
Welcome swallow
Spur winged plover
Whistling kite
Black swan
Little corella (?)
Mallard
other ducks
Southern boobook
Austrlian pelican
White plumed honey eater
Red wattle bird
Crested pigeon

Plus a lot of other small things I haven't identified yet.

Labour of love

2009-05-06T10:09:00.002+10:00

Angie Hart and Guy Blackman at the Toff, 5 May 2009

Caught the tram downtown and wandered around Swanston Street looking for the Toff. It is still silly to be worried about being late since nothing ever starts on time. But this one didn't start too awfully late. The Toff is up a few flights and seems like a pretty cool lounge/club. $7 for a beer though, ouch.

Guy Blackman was on first. He is a friend of C's and I wasn't quite sure what to expect. It wasn't at all what I expected. I knew it was an acoustic show. Nothing against that, although I tend to like music that sounds more like people getting beat up or things being destroyed. He alternated between acoustic guitar and an electric piano and occasionally played some pre-recorded backing music from his iPod. It was quite gushy confessional with a touch of lounge thrown in. He sheepishly throws in a Dusty Springfield cover at one point, how dare I presume to cover Dusty, the rest of the songs being almost exclusively about his failed or past and current romances or just generally throwing yourself into it all. It is nice and quite sweet while hovering so very close to unbearable schmaltz without quite descending into that.

Angie Hart was the voice of Frente and her voice is such a huge part of their sound. They had a song on the Melrose Place soundtrack, so she is super famous. Ahh, Melrose Place, do you remember that episode where Brooke drowns in the pool then comes back as a ghost and haunts Billy and Billy gets this stupid look on his face because he is a horrible actor and being haunted by a ghost is just totally out of his range, ahh, good times, but I can't get caught up in Melrose Place here.

Angie has a guy with her, Sam, on acoustic guitar. He is quite good, plays loud and gets a lot of sound out of it with just a edge of classical guitar. I've listened to a few of her new songs online and they have lots of instruments and lots of production, but I guess what I really liked about Frente was the sparseness. With her and an acoustic guitar tonight, it has that and is good. She has a great voice. She plays lots of new songs I've never heard, a few old Frente songs, and does a fun duet (tri-et?, Sam played too) with Guy coming back to play along on Book of Love (Magnetic Fields) while she forgets a lot of the lyrics and screws up a bit in the middle. Then comes back for an encore, ending with Bizarre Love Triangle. It is funny, New Order can play that whenever they want but Frente really owns that song now. To me, it is the way to do a cover, either take a loud, complicated, or electronic song and make it super simple and quiet or take a quiet song and totally kick its ass, either way totally remaking the song in your own image.

Then home and in bed by 11:15, that's the way to do a show, no fuss, just music and quick in and out.

I'm a member of the right brigade

2009-05-03T12:23:00.004+10:00

So, one of my resolutions in moving to Melbourne was being better about getting out and seeing bands. I lived in London for years and was just incredibly lame about that, I'm just embarrassed how few things I saw there. But big to medium acts, they sold out months in advance, and the smaller bands, there were like hundreds of them playing everything. Going through Time Out every week was pretty overwhelming. But I'm determined here, it will be better.

Luckily there is somewhere just a few blocks away so it isn't a huge effort. Chapel Street is mostly cafes, fancy second hand shops, trendy clothes shops, and night clubs. But Revolver also has bands some nights. And for $7, what the hell.

On the bill tonight, Red Brigades, The Sophisticants, and The Jonathans. Now I'm quite out of practice about the arrival time. I leave late to get there yet still have to wait for an hour before anything happens. Sigh. Nice comfy couches though. I sit next to the mom of two of the Jonathans. She seems familiar with lots of the songs, probably heard them from the basement/garage a lot. So, they are not so great. Revolver has a tv projection system showing strange old stock footage superimposed over live video of the band. I enjoy the stock footage, the effect is a bit like old 60s tv shows of bands, cheap video effects over strange random images. It would be fun to put together film and images like that. I keep hoping they will start rocking and get out of that groove they are in but besides the Loose Change In My Pocket song, where I think, hey, this isn't so bad, well, it is only $7.

It is a real flashback to high school/college, those earnest yet trying to be epic songs, singing that is just a bit off key and phrasings with just a few too many syllables to fit in a line ahh, good times in college, drinking and watching your buddies play and make a lot of noise. They seemed to bring a lot of their friends along, about half the crowd disappears after they finish. Must make a note for myself, Jonathan by the Jonathans, they said it is about somebody they knew who died and they named the band after him. Maybe it will fit on my dead teen song web page.

I'm a little more hopeful about the Sophisticants. While they are setting up, the bass has a nice fuzzy sound and the drummer hits really hard. When they start playing, it is amazing what a really good drummer can do for a band. He is pretty kick ass and the bass guy fits in well and makes a pretty rocking rhythm section. I can't really hear the guitar much, but they all seem to aspire to a sort of Stooges/New York Dolls sound. It is great when bands can pull off double time thrash sections, that drummer is pretty good. They throw in a few ska sounding things (was thinking of Sublime at the time) It is nice that they seem to be having a great time on stage, smiling and laughing and having fun. The singer bounces around a lot, trying different things, a bit of Elvis, some Roger Daltry, some of that guy from Sublime. I wish I could remember some of their songs now, but at least they were fun and I enjoyed watching the drummer go at it.

Red Brigades, I had high hopes for them. From the clips on their webpage, looks like 2 girls on guitar and bass making lots of noise with a boy drummer. Seems good. They play mostly slow dirges. The guitar has plenty of delay on it, sometimes looped, and lots of other effects. Seeing it live, the songs are much simpler than I thought, depending a lot on the effects, simple bass lines, and slow drumming. I still like it and occasionally they really kick it in and launch into a fast bit and jump around a lot. The violin bow on guitar technique makes me think they have other musical training. I'm pleased to see a wah-wah pedal thrown in there too, not enough of that in music anymore. They play a pretty cool set of all of this, and am quite entertained. I'm not entirely convinced by their cover of Dancing Queen, which resembles the original in very few ways, mostly the same lyrics. It is funny and a cool thing to do but somehow doesn't quite work for me entirely. I'd be interested in what other covers they could warp like that. I'll keep an eye on them and might have to check them out again sometime soon.

Midnight, Saturday night on Chapel Street, most everybody has that glazed over stumbling look of the tail end of a night out drinking. A group of girls in bed-sheet togas yells Wooo as they walk down the street. Oh my, where am I living?

Leaving on a jet plane

2009-03-31T11:23:00.002+11:00

Well, enough goofing around in WA, time to be moving on and settling down. After about 10 weeks in Perth, Fremantle and Albany, the I'll be flying off to Melbourne and work on getting settled down there. I meant to write more over the last 10 weeks but it was a bit busy. I'll have to see how it goes after getting there. There is a lot to set up and organize.

It has been a really good 10 weeks and I have seen some really great things. Dolphins on the south coast in the Southern Ocean, a few off South Beach in Fremantle, and two just a few days ago well up the Swan River in central Perth. The marsupials are quite cool. There were lots of kangaroo wandering around down south. The bandicoot that wandered around the garden was great. Then the quakkas on Rottnest Island, yeah, they were cute too.

I'm getting a good handle on the birds here after sighting eagles, osprey, honey eaters, and more parrots and cockatoos than you can shake a stick at. I could probably make a list of about 50 different species that I've seen since I've gotten here. I'm looking forward to seeing which ones are different in eastern Australia.

There has been cycle camping from Albany to Walpole, a week in a fishing shack on a cliff over the Southern Ocean, a few days on Rottnest Island, snorkeling and swimming in a lot of different bays and rivers, kayaking in a few other rivers, and hmm what else? It is nice that most museums are free in Australia, so I've wandered through a few of them.

I should be to Melbourne then pretty quickly. I'm looking for a few good concert buddies. It has been too long since I've seen many live shows. Drop me a line and tell me what bands are cool to see. So, here I come.

Where the hell is Bill? (Short billed black cockatoo) - Photo of the day

2009-03-30T11:41:00.002+11:00

12 February 2009 - Nornalup, Australia

Just walking outside the Valley of the Giants campsite, there was a grove of trees with 3-4 cockatoos up in the trees. This one was the lookout, keeping an eye out while the other ones went about their business.

The tooth fairy and the princess (Splendid fairy-wren) - Photo of the day

2009-03-29T11:37:00.004+11:00

12 February 2009 - Nornalup, Australia.

Maybe the prettiest bird I've seen so far is the fairy-wren. I know the parrots and parakeets are pretty but the male fairy-wrens just glow. At the Valley of the Giants campsite, there was a group of rather tame ones, the male with his harem all feeding their chicks, who would walk right up to you and cheep at you.

Lady Water and the hooded one (Hooded plover) - Photo of the day

2009-03-28T10:59:00.003+11:00

23 Feburary 2009 - Pallinup, Australia

Hooded plovers are endangered and quite uncommon. So, it was nice to see a few of them wandering around the beach.

Do the ostrich - (Emu) - Photo of the day

2009-03-27T10:52:00.004+11:00

11 February 2009 - Near Parry Beach, Australia

Emu are related to the ostrich and are native to Australia. They are slightly smaller. I believe they are the state bird of Western Australia. Here are a few of them.

Like cockatoos - (White cockatoo) - Photo of the day

2009-03-26T10:07:00.003+11:00

15 January 2009 - Fremantle, Australia

White cockatoos fly around the garden here occasionally. Mostly up high in the trees but sometimes they come down low and you can see them better. I wonder if these are seasonal since I haven't seen them for a few months now.

Think pink (Galah/pink and gray parrots) - Photo of the day

2009-03-25T10:15:00.006+11:00

18 January 2009 - Fremantle, Australia

There are a lot of these around, galahs, or pink and grey parrots. Quite noisy when they are flying and chasing each other around. Here they are working on some sunflowers near a telephone pole on a street corner.

Like a bird on the wire - (Red tailed black cockatoo) - Photo of the day

2009-03-24T10:04:00.005+11:00

18 March 2009 - Fremantle, Australia

A few noisy red tailed black cockatoos perched on the tree in the back garden a few days ago. They are really pretty when they fly and the red in their tail really flashes. They are a little harder to take pictures of when they are in trees, the red doesn't show as much, nor does the gold speckles on their chest.

(Under The Screaming Double) Eagle-(white-bellied sea eagle) - Photo of the day

2009-03-23T10:09:00.005+11:00

4 March 2009 - Torbay Inlet, Australia

While rowing kayaks down the Torbay Inlet, a nice white-bellied sea eagle flew overhead and then landed in a tree and was good enough to stay there as we drifted underneath. Usually you see them circling over the sea and cliffs but it was nice to see this one close up.

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree - Picture of the day

2009-03-22T10:18:00.003+11:00

19 January 2009 - Subiaco, Australia

The laughing kookaburra is one of the birds you hear about from Australia. It is a large kingfisher. They look pretty cool, although in Western Australia they are considered invasive (from eastern Australia) and compete negatively with other native species in WA.

Just like honey (New holland honeyeater) - Photo of the day

2009-03-21T10:19:00.002+11:00

23 January 2009 - Albany, Australia

More bird pictures, I hear you, you can't have enough of those. I guess I have a few days worth of those from various parts of Australia. Here you have a New Holland Honeyeater, they are pretty common along the south coast of Western Australia.

New Holland was an old name for Australia, originally for the whole continent and then after that everything that wasn't New South Wales (i.e. Western Australia).

Polly wants a cracker - Photo of the day

2009-03-20T10:43:00.002+11:00

14 March 2009 - Fremantle, Australia

Back to the present day, I could probably spend a lot of time posting pictures of all the nice birds I've taken pictures of in the last few months. Australia has some good ones, lots of colorful ones at that. Walking around Fremantle, here we have an Australian Ringneck (commonly known as the Twenty-Eight Parrot) on a powerline.

Moon, turn the tides... gently gently away - Photo of the day

2009-03-19T10:31:00.002+11:00

11 March 2005 - Wallasey, Merseyside

High spring tides pouring over the sea wall.

Nashville Skyline - Photo of the day

2009-03-18T10:24:00.001+11:00

5 December 2004 - Wallasey, Merseyside

On a walk down the promenade near Wallasey Town Hall.

Autumn serenade - Photo of the day

2009-03-17T10:19:00.001+11:00

14 November 2004 - New Brighton, Merseyside

Walking around the Wirral through autumn colors.

Gotta foggy notion - Photo of the day

2009-03-16T10:15:00.001+11:00

14 October 2004 - Wallasey, Merseyside

A foggy day outside Wallasey Townhall.

In the heat of the moment - Photo of the day

2009-03-15T10:55:00.001+11:00

3 September 2009 - Finnhamn, Sweden

The sauna, a great Scandinavian tradition. This was a fantastic sauna, hidden in a cove on the edge of the water. Heat up in the sauna and then there is a pier extending around the rock into the ocean to dive in and cool off and then jump back into the sauna again.

Michael row the boat ashore - Photo of the day

2009-03-14T10:42:00.001+11:00

2 September 2009 - Finnhamn, Sweden

Finnhamn is a quite small island out towards the edge of the Stockholm archipelago. There are thousands of islands scattered through it. Here we are towing one of the boats (one either side, row over, tow one back, row back, leave it there) which are part of a chain of boats which allow you to hike across the archipelago. We are crossing over to a neighboring island to explore it.

Ray of light - Photo of the day

2009-03-13T10:44:00.001+11:00

19 September 2004 - New Brighton, Merseyside

The New Brighton lighthouse on Perch Rock at the northern tip of the Wirral, across from Liverpool, at low tide.

Been dazed and confused for so long, its not true - Photo of the day

2009-03-12T10:14:00.000+11:00

6 June 2004 - New York, New York.

In Penn Station in NYC after a long ride from Albany, just on my way to New Jersey. Better run, my train is up on the board.

Go Johnny go - Photo of the day

2009-03-11T10:22:00.000+11:00

7 October 2007 - Denver, Colorado

Gito Gito Hustler in playing in Denver. They rocked.

Many rivers to cross - Photo of the day

2009-03-10T10:04:00.000+11:00

10 June 2004 - Bannerman Island, New York

Some old classic photos now. I used to take the train from Albany to New York along the Hudson River a lot. One of my favorite things was going by Bannerman Island, a bit of a folly in the middle of the river, a fairly modern old looking ruined castle. A funny thing to see in New York.

Ho-ho-ho ho ho, that's the Woody Woodpecker song - Photo of the day

2009-03-09T10:04:00.000+11:00

2 September 2008 - Finnhamn, Sweden

So excited to see this one, a black woodpecker while we were walking around the island. Pretty rare in the UK, maybe somewhat less rare in Sweden but still exciting. Taken through binoculars, so not the greatest picture, sorry.

Shoplifters of the world, unite - Photo of the day

2009-03-08T10:25:00.000+11:00

1 September 2008 - Finnhamn, Sweden

So, we arrive on Finnhamn fortunately or unfortunately, depending on the way you look at it, a few days after the season ended. It was great because the island was almost completely deserted, maybe 10 people on it. But that also meant that the little shop on the island was closed and we only had a few days of food in our pack. Luckily there was a self service farm shop with enough vegetables (nice organic at that too) to get us through until we could find somebody who open the shop for us.

And yeah, we paid for them. Amazingly trusting, the cash box had a whole lot of krona in it.

Looks like muskrat love - Photo of the day

2009-03-07T10:45:00.000+11:00

28 February 2009 - Albany, Australia

And here I thought bandicoots were just some video game thing, but they are quite cool little marsupials running around the yard, digging holes to eat roots and bulbs and insects. They are supposed to be nocturnal but they seem to be out at all times of the day. Not quite sure if this is a long-nose, short-nose, a bilby, or what type. I'm better at bird identifications.

Tapioca sunrise - Photo of the day

2009-03-06T10:38:00.000+11:00

26 February 2009 - Pallinup, Australia

Well, our last sunrise at the fishing shack. We were up early to pack up the truck and leave. It poured in the night and we were rewarded with a beautiful sunrise.

Spiderbaby (yeah yeah yeah) - Photo of the day

2009-03-05T10:47:00.000+11:00

22 February 2009 - Pallinup, Australia

I hear that Australia has the largest number of poisonous spiders, snakes, bugs in the world, or something like that. Here we have a huntsman spider, probably 2-3 cm long, which I guess normally don't bite and are mildly venomous.

I'm not sure if this is the same one we kept seeing in the shack that seemed to be losing a lot of legs. This one has 7 legs, the one we saw later only had 6. It was crawling around the rafters on the roof hunting for bugs.

I've seen it in your eyes, I've read it in books - 100 Books meme

2009-03-04T21:31:00.000+11:00

100 books

So, this one is going around, and since I'm sort of a sucker for lists. But doing a little research, it isn't quite what it claims. The list claims to be from the BBC but it seems that it is actually from a list put together by Guardian readers (would be interesting to see how that list would differ from readers of like the Daily Mail or Sunday Times or Evening Standard, etc). The original 100 book from the BBC are below that one here. I went ahead and filled out both. It also makes this claim that the BBC only expects you to have read 6 of the 100, but that is nowhere to be found either on the Guardian page or the BBC. I assume that was added by whoever started this meme so that most people can feel smug about having read a lot more than 6. I would be surprised if most people hadn't read more than 6 of these. But then I'm surprised occasionally to meet people who haven't read more than 1 book a year (or less). That's insane.

But my totals, 49 for the Guardian list (sort of a strange list, listing both Lion Witch and the Wardrobe and the Chronicles of Narnia, and a few other examples like that). Do I get credit for having read probably 90% of the Shakespeare's plays and the 1/2 of Ulysses I read in college (I did turn in a paper on it after all)? The BBC list, I don't do quite as well, only 41 (ok 40 1/2).

The BBC believes most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books
here. How do your reading habits stack up?

Instructions: Look at the list and put an 'x' after those you have read
once. Enter a number for the number of times you read something.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen X
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien X
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling - X
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee X
6 The Bible -
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte X
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell X
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman X
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens X
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller X
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare - Most (probably 90%)
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier X
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien X
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger X
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald X
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams X
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky X
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck X
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll X
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame -
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis X
34 Emma - Jane Austen X
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis - X
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell - X
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown - X
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving X
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins -
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood - X
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding - X
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel -X
52 Dune - Frank Herbert -X
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons -
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zifon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens X
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley - X
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov X
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold -
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac X
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding X
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville X
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens X
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker - X
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson X
75 Ulysses - James Joyce - Half(although I did write a paper on it in
college pretending I read the whole thing)
76 The Inferno - Dante - X
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome X
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens X
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert X
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White X
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle X
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad - X
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery X
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams - X
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare - X
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl - X
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

BBC 100 Book Meme RAW List

Instructions:
1) Look at the list and put an ‘x’ after those you have read.
2) Add a ‘+’ to the ones you LOVE.
3) Star (*) those you plan on reading.
4) Tally your total.

How many have you read?

1. [x] - The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. [ ] - Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. [x] - His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. [x] - The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. [x] - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. [x] - To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. [x] - Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. [x] - Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
9. [x] - The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. [ ] - Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. [x] - Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. [x] - Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. [ ] - Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. [x] - Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. [x] - The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. [ ] - The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. [ ] - Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. [ ] - Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. [ ] - Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. [ ] - War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. [ ] - Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. [x] - Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone, JK Rowling
23. [x] - Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. [x] - Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. [x] - The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. [ ] - Tess Of The D’Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. [ ] - Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. [x] - A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. [x] - The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. [x] - Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. [ ] - The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. [ ] - One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
33. [ ] - The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. [ ] - David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. [x] - Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. [x] - Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. [ ] - A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. [ ] - Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. [x] - Dune, Frank Herbert
40. [ ] - Emma, Jane Austen
41. [ ] - Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. [x] - Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. [x] - The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. [ ] - The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. [ ] - Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. [x] - Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. [x] - A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. [ ] - Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. [ ] - Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. [ ] - The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. [ ] - The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. [ ] - Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. [x] - The Stand, Stephen King
54. [ ] - Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. [ ] - A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. [ ] - The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. [ ] - Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. [ ] - Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. [ ] - Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. [x] - Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. [ ] - Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. [ ] - Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. [x] - A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. [x] - The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. [x] - Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. [ ] - The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. [ ] - The Magus, John Fowles
68. [x] - Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. [x] - Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. [x] - Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. [ ] - Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. [ ] - The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. [x] - Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. [ ] - Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. [x] - Bridget Jones’s Diary, Helen Fielding
76. [ ] - The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. [ ] - The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. [1/2] - Ulysses, James Joyce
79. [ ] - Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. [ ] - Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. [x] - The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. [ ] - I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. [ ] - Holes, Louis Sachar
84. [ ] - Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. [ ] - The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. [ ] - Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. [x] - Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. [ ] - Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. [ ] - Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. [x] - On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. [ ] - The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. [ ] - The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. [x] - The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. [ ] - The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. [ ] - Katherine, Anya Seton
96. [ ] - Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. [ ] - Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
98. [ ] - Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. [ ] - The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. [ ] - Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie

Send me an angel, right now - Photo of the day

2009-03-04T10:32:00.000+11:00

25 February 2009 - Pallinup, Australia

On a hike along the ocean from Pallinup towards Boat Harbour (I think there are about 500 places in Australia called Boat Harbour), I saw this cloud and ran to the top of the hill to take a picture before it disappeared.

Mother whale eyeless - Photo of the day

2009-03-03T10:13:00.000+11:00

20 February 2009 - Pallinup, Australia

A short walk down the beach from the fishing shack, a dead whale sat in the surf. It is perhaps a baby humpback whale, looks like it has been dead for a while, quite mushy with lots of bits chewed out by sharks. It smelled pretty bad too. But amazing, even in its putrid state, it was graceful and lovely as the waves moved it around. It had probably washed up a day or so before because as the week went on, it ended up buried deeper and deeper in the sand.

I want to go back to my little grass shack - Photo of the day

2009-03-02T10:37:00.000+11:00

20 February 2009 - Pallinup, Australia

Back to the present for a little bit, last week we spent a week staying in Pallinup, right above the Beaufort Inlet in a small fishing shack looking over the ocean. An amazing place, water from rain tanks, no electricity, etc. Apparently they have been a some what controversial Australian tradition for decades, but a lovely tradition too, primitive little makeshift tin shacks on the edge of the ocean, holiday homes that are generally shared among family and friends.

Most local councils are trying to get rid of them now, banning any building of new ones, limiting the amount of construction that can be done on existing ones, and trying to tear a lot of the existing ones down. This one is on a fishing lease, the smaller of two, the other one is use by more active commercial fishers both on the ocean and the inlet which is separated off from the ocean by a sandbar. There used to be a third shack but last year the inlet broke through the sandbar and washed away some of the cliff edge, including the third shack.

Island of lost souls - Photo of the day

2009-03-01T10:18:00.000+11:00

31 August 2008 - Stockholm, Sweden

On the ferry through the Stockholm Archipelago on our way to the island of Finnhamn.

Castles in the air - Photo of the day

2009-02-28T10:14:00.000+11:00

31 August 2008 - Stockholm, Sweden

Another image from Skansen, the open air museum on Djurgarden. A Sami house from the northern part of Sweden (or maybe it was Finland or Norway at the time, all those countries shifted borders quite a bit over the years).

Gasoline alley bred - Photo of the day

2009-02-27T10:05:00.000+11:00

31 August 2008 - Stockholm, Sweden

Got a little addicted to open air museums in Scandinavia. Some old main street of a town moved there now in Skansen, the open air museum on Djurgarden.

Mirror, mirror, mirror star - Photo of the day

2009-02-26T10:51:00.000+11:00

31 August 2008 - Stockholm, Sweden

Pretty tiles in the Anglyplan subway station.

Little fluffy clouds - Photo of the day

2009-02-25T10:36:00.000+11:00

30 August 2008 - Stockholm, Sweden

Walking towards Sodermalm, some nice clouds that day.

Cinder alley - Photo of the day

2009-02-24T10:32:00.000+11:00

30 August 2008 - Stockholm, Sweden

Walking through the narrow alleys of the old town, Gamla Stan.

Hot doggin' - Photo of the day

2009-02-23T10:28:00.000+11:00

30 August 2008 - Stockholm, Sweden

More food pictures. We saw people eating these and it seemed so cool, hot dogs and mashed potatoes wrapped in a tortilla shell with fried onions on top. Tasted much better than it looks.

Rainy day mushroom pillow - Photo of the day

2009-02-22T10:51:00.000+11:00

29 August 2008 - Stockholm, Sweden

Mushrooms, lingon berries, lots of other nice things to eat. The mushrooms made a fantastic dinner that evening.

All lost in the supermarket - Photo of the day

2009-02-21T10:45:00.000+11:00

28 August 2008 - Karlsted, Sweden

Swedish design, looks so stylish, making the grocery stores a fun and colorful place. Bags of flour or oats or something.

These boots are made for walking - Photo of the day

2009-02-20T10:42:00.000+11:00

28 August 2008 - Karlsted, Sweden

Following in the series of pedestrian walk signs around the world. No hat like in Norway and a slightly different posture. Also, an example of customized versions of these signs I saw all over Stockholm.

Under the boardwalk, down by the sea - Photo of the day

2009-02-18T18:32:00.004+11:00

27 August 2008 - Karlsted, Sweden

Walking out to Lake Vanern at the southern tip of Hammaron after a nice ride using the free bikes given out by Karlsted.

Bridge Head (pt. 9) - Photo of the day

2009-02-18T10:02:00.000+11:00

26 August 2008 - Karlsted, Sweden

First evening in Sweden. The longest stone bridge in the world, or something like that. The architect killed himself thinking he had built a rubbish bridge, but apparently it has stood the test of time.

On we sweep with threshing oar - Photo of the day

2009-02-17T10:36:00.000+11:00

25 August 2008 - Oslo, Norway, in the Viking ship museum.

So I'm riding with the new church - Photo of the day

2009-02-16T10:35:00.000+11:00

24 August 2008 - Oslo, Norway, at the open air museum. One of the old churches that have been moved to the museum.

Cursed realms of the winter demons - Photo of the day

2009-02-15T10:08:00.001+11:00

20 August 2008 - Finse, Norway. On the train passing through on the way to Oslo. Apparently, the ice planet of Hoth is just nearby.

Looking from a hilltop - Photo of the day

2009-02-14T10:48:00.001+11:00

22 August 2008 - Wild camping near Myrdal, Norway. Took the most famous train in the universe up here, the Flamsbana, and camped up on top of a hill, in sight of the Myrdal station where we will catch a train the next day to take us to Oslo.

I'd like to be, under the sea

2009-02-13T10:27:00.000+11:00

21 August 2008 - Osterbo, Norway - A hike down from Osterbo. Looks a lot like undersea coral but is actually different colors of moss and lichen.

Action painting

2009-02-12T11:08:00.000+11:00

21 August 2008 - Bjonnstigvarden, Norway - A hike down from Osterbo. Apparently this is the basis for a famous painting (1819) in the Oslo National Gallery by Johannes Flintoe. It was very steep hike down just after this, onto the Devil's Staircase.

The tin roof

2009-02-11T11:03:00.000+11:00

20 August 2008 - Aurlandsvangen, Norway - The organic farm with its grass roof, although earthen roofs were fairly common around Norway.

Walk, don't run

2009-02-10T10:57:00.000+11:00

20 August 2008 - Aurlandsvangen, Norway - The beginning of my obsession over different designs for pedestrian signs around the world. Norway features someone with a jaunty fedora and nice fluid walking pace. (More of these later on, like the one with the bowler in Vietnam.)

I'm on top of the world

2009-02-09T10:54:00.000+11:00

19 August 2008 - Bakka, Norway - High up, looking over the Naeroyfjorden.

So he showed me to the golden gate

2009-02-08T10:48:00.000+11:00

19 August 2008 - Bakka, Norway - Bakka church, wall of pastors.

Sitting on the dock of the bay

2009-02-07T10:07:00.000+11:00

18 August 2008 - In the town of Otternes, looking over the Aurlandsfjorden.

Another Song for a Blue Guitar

2009-02-06T14:54:00.001+11:00

Another Meme: IPod Edition
1. Put your music player on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS!
4. Tag 10, no.... 6... ahhh... a random number of random friends who may enjoy doing the same as well.

IF SOMEONE SAYS "IS THIS OK" YOU SAY:
PIL - first issue - a3 Annalisa

WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY?
Die Kreuzen-October File-19-On The Street

WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL?
Fall-Peel Sessions-092480-03-New Face

HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY?
Fall-I'm Into CB

WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO?
Sonic Youth-Murray Street-05-Radical Adults Lick Godhead Style

WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU?
Easybeats-Easy-18.Friday On My Mind

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN?
Elvis Costello-Rarities-13-Pills And Soap (Extended)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND?
Iggy & the Stooges-Raw Power-02-Raw Power

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
Minor Threat-Complete-12 Out Of Step

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY?
XTC-Urgh! A Music War-05-Respectable Street

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP?
Jesus and Mary Chain-Psychocandy-07-Taste Of Cindy

WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE?
ZBC Singles Hits-10.U2-A Celebration

WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU?
Michael Nesmith-Complete-202-Propinquity

WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL?
Echo & The Bunnymen-Porcupine-07-Ripeness

WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET?
Anti Nowhere League-We Are The League-01-We're the league

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS?
Robyn Hitchcock-Kershaw Sessions-16-Madonna of the Wasps

WHAT'S THE WORST THING THAT COULD HAPPEN?
Sex Pistols-Great R&R Swindle-21-Friggin in the Riggin

HOW WILL YOU DIE?
Big Star-#1 Record_Radio City-01-Feel

WHAT IS THE ONE THING YOU REGRET?
Liz Phair-Whip-smart-01 Chopsticks

WHAT MAKES YOU LAUGH?
Soundgarden-A-Sides-14-Burden In My Hand

WHAT MAKES YOU CRY?
Pop-o-pies-White EP-01-Truckin'

WILL YOU EVER GET MARRIED?
Fall-This Nation's Saving Grace-08.Couldn't Get Ahead

DOES ANYONE LIKE YOU?
Music Machine-Ignition-15-Worry (Instrumental)

IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME, WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE?
Buzzcocks-Different Kind Of Tension-07-I Don't Know What To Do with myself

WHAT HURTS RIGHT NOW?
Gang of Four-100 Flowers Bloom-214-I Fled

IF YOU COULD DO ANYTHING WHAT WOULD IT BE?
Nick Cave & Barry Adamson - Sweetest Embrace

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR SEX?
Buzzcocks-Operators Manual-06-Get On Our Own

WHAT YOU WANT OUT OF LIFE?
Pere Ubu-Datapanik-Box Set-A01-30 Seconds Over Tokyo

WHAT DO YOU LIKE THE MOST?
Minutemen-Post Mersh-303-Definitions

WHATS THE LAST THING YOU DID THAT YOU REGRET?
Who-My Generation

HOW DO YOU LIKE YOUR SEX?
They Might Be Giants-Flood-06-Your Racist Friend

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR PERFECT DAY?
Butthole Surfers-Locust Abortion Technician-01-Sweat Loaf.mp3.

YOUR WORST DAY?
Bonzo Dog Band-German 45-01-Mr. Apollo [German Version]

IF YOU COULD SAY ONE THING TO THE PERSON WHO GOT YOU TO DO THIS NOTE WHAT WOULD IT BE?
Big Black-Rich Man's Eight Track-08-Bazooka Joe

ARE YOU A FREAK?
Gang of Four-100 Flowers Bloom-204-Ether

WHAT IS YOUR WEAKNESS?
Wire-154-12-Indirect Enquiries

WHAT WOULD YOU DO TO THE LAST PERSON YOU SAW TODAY?
Shelley Fabares-Best Of-05-Welcome Home

WHAT ARE YOU DOING THIS WEEKEND?
Alan Vega-Video Babe

WHAT WILL YOU POST THIS AS?
Kinks-1-05-tired of waiting for you

Come on and join our convoy, ain't nothin gonna get in our way

2009-02-06T10:11:00.000+11:00

21 January 2009 - A sighting of a road train, something that strikes fear into both cyclists and motorists, enormous trucks roaming Australian highways. This is a baby one, they can be up to 36 or 50 meters long.

The boatman's call

2009-02-05T10:00:00.000+11:00

17 August 2008 - Kayaking down the Aurlandsfjord just north of Flåm, Norway.

Good morning, good morning, good morning world

2009-02-04T09:50:00.000+11:00

16 August 2008 - Morning at our camp site in Flåm, Norway.

Tear the roof off the sucker (give up the funk).

2009-02-03T12:21:00.000+11:00

16 August 2008 - Hiking near Flåm, Norway, a nuthatch perched on a roof. Taken through binoculars. Later in the trip, I'll have a better camera with more zoom, so stay tuned for better bird pictures.

Oh, I want you, like a kangaroo

2009-02-01T23:01:00.004+11:00

1 February 2009 - Yep, you know you are in Australia now, kangaroos hopping around fields.

I might be a big baby, but I'll scream in your ear

2009-01-30T18:32:00.002+11:00

Now, I've just moved from the UK which until now I thought was the epicenter of the nanny state, but they seem to have nothing on Australia. (Although all of the following can be considered for entertainment purposes only if any the following might jeopardize my pending residency visa).

Don't get me started on bike helmets. I haven't worn one for years in London and now I'm stuck with one here. A well meaning law but one that seems to me to do nothing to actually make anything about cycling safer.

Recently, a bike shop I was in didn't stock bunji cords (elastic straps with hooks which can be used to attach anything up to like a sofa onto a bike) because "they can be dangerous, mate", they can snap back and hurt people. They would only stock non-elastic straps. Sigh.

Today the news drove me over the edge. Peter Garrett, former front man for Midnight Oil, now minister of something or other (although much less of a position than he had hoped for after shooting his mouth off too much during the last election) after a recent photo opportunity had numerous people call the police for not wearing a life jacket in a rowboat (there is no legal requirement). Great, those are probably the same people who complained to bike shops about bunji cords after they heard that this one guy somewhere was hurt by one.

So much for my image of Australia as a rugged country.

Don't pay the ferryman

2009-01-30T17:40:00.005+11:00

15 August 2008 - Coming down the Aurlandsfjord on the ferry on the way to
Flåm, Norway.

Heel on the shovel

2009-01-30T14:09:00.006+11:00

28 January 2009 - Earning my room and board in Australia, shovelling loads of manure. Ok, it was just one load and I could probably still stay if I hadn't shovelled it.

Signals from above

2009-01-30T11:52:00.002+11:00

14 August 2008 - Image of Bergen, Norway from the top of Ulriken mountain from our hike up to the top.

Instead of breaking up I wish that we were making up again

2009-01-27T22:34:00.004+11:00

And skipping to the present, an image from 19 January 2009. Aaack, my frame, my bike that I shipped over to Australia, has cracked, apparently a known fault with the Fratello frames. I'm busy arguing with Condor about what they intend to do about it since it is still under warranty. I'm frustrated and having to borrow somebody else's bike. Grr.