gray kicks bass !! (updated now with video)
September 3, 2009
Extraordinary moments.
For the Melbourne hall of fame 2009, i would nominate the Flying Scribble percussion artist gray taylor for her one-armed drumming set at the Wesley Anne, sunday 28th June.
Not only did she valiantly play with her left arm out of action, she played one song blindfolded. Go gray! You are a star and a legend. We love you.
Oh and Louise was good too. You both rock.
PS
Ooh look here’s Lou and gray again playing at Anytime Place in July, filmed by the Qua on his mobile phone. Video is lame.. get closer man, but it sounds good. This was a really good set. Many people dancing.
And guess what! Update! They’re having a CD launch (single) next Thursday evening 10th September at Wesley Anne.
Woo hoo. Can’t wait.
PPS:
yes Flying Scribble was magnificent:
-
- Fab to see gray double-armed again.
- And Louise’s new fully electric hot red mini-organ sounds just as good as the 6-ton-slider.
- The Bon Scotts were fun too.
Here’s a review of the single already over at Mess and Noise where you can listen to the song.. in one piece if your bandwidth will do it. Oh and read the comments as well as the review.. you’ll find a funny NZ story and Ben Butcher’s shoot of the ladies gettin glamorous on a Northcote monkey bar.
Fly scribble fly.
delights of brunswick
January 21, 2009
Oh thank heavens i’m back home. G Love and Special Sauce is on the stereo, Sam’s getting fish n chips from the new place on Sydney Road .. and the massive heat wave faded away just before i arrived. Tim and Nathan are here, with beer.
Life is perfect.
Sometimes you can have enough of a foreign place and living out of a backpack. Phnom Penh is beautiful in its way, but the poverty gets to me (not as much as it affects the locals obviously), my comfort zones are stretched, the heat and dust wears me down. i needed the comfort of home.
mmmm .. off to Victoria St to get me some frozen lychees.
.
cycling good fortune
December 22, 2008
i’ve been very lucky with the bike lately.
The front gear thing was out of whack. (The derailleur.) So i took it along to Lygon Cycles, where they said .. “oh, you want a service? Well everything needs replacing, so it’ll cost you around $360.”
“But you can get a new bike for around $400.”
Ouch. Not so convenient. i start looking for new bikes, and the one i want is over $1000. Maybe i’ll budget for that.
..in the meantime.. i take the bike down to Ceres on a Saturday morning and have a go at fixing the derailleur myself. The great thing about Ceres is that if you try to mend it yourself, eventually an expert will swing by and give you advice .. or in my case, roll their eyes, take the tool and do it themselves.
But within a couple of weeks, the thing’s broken again in a different place, proving the Lygon people correct. i’m riding around in the lowest gear imaginable, my legs pumping 3 times faster than they should.
Then one day i’m riding along the Bicycle Highway (Canning St.) into the Edinburgh Gardens, and there’s a couple of people with a sign saying “Free Bike Maintenance”. What about that for good luck!
“Are you with Ceres?” i ask.
“No, just a couple of nutters,” the guy replies.
“Speak for yourself,” his partner cuts in ..
Within a few moments, he’s done an emergency procedure, told me about the best bike shop in Melbourne (under the Richmond station .. lots of second hand parts he says), and given my pedal power back to me.
i feel so much better on the roads now.
Thank you heavenly bike-mending angels !!
(So, now i’m looking for more bike stories. What about you post one on your blog, and link back here .. or leave me a comment? Where’s the worst place you’ve broken down? etc. Hello, x
Multi-sensory theatre .. anticipation
September 29, 2008
i am a huge fan of Roundangle theatre .. the multi-sensory works of Will and Jodie. eg Source/Sauce which was so good that it won many awards.
So it was a buzz to be drawn into their blindfolded conga line at hi vibes.
“Hey Will, how are you?” i said.
“Do you want to join our conga line?” he replied, “.. just put on this blindfold.”
The experience was pretty much my highlight of the day. Several people blindfolded, walking through that enormous crowd, joined only at the shoulders. Will sent directions from the back via hand-on-shoulder touch: stop, go, left or right. Crowds swarmed around us, murmuring and shouting ..
How could i resist booking a ticket for closing night of the play, Deceased Estate .. this saturday.
Here’s Jodie talking about the Source/Sauce experience.
getting used to Brunswick
June 9, 2008
i have to say, it’s quite an adventure moving across to the other side of the Merri Creek. Time seems to move more slowly now because there’s so much newness to absorb.
- “Sparkly Square” is a much more fun than Northcote Plaza;
- Walking distance to miles and miles of parkland – but i’m walking, not jogging yet;
- Hundreds of new restaurants within minutes of home ..
- many more cheap variety stores, with all manner of precious junk (which i am not thinking about buying, at all! Too much junk in my life already, which i still haven’t cleared out.)
Sydney road has a different character from Northcote High Street .. can’t quite describe the difference just yet. Larger range of ethnic diversity? More established cafes and hotels?
But all these new cafes, i need a local tour guide ..
and where are all the musicians madly improvising?
Thank Evans i’m still cycling distance from the Northcote hill.
