Sat 27 Oct — Mountains In The Sky, Qua, Flying Scribble

Lou and gray were utterly astounding, although they won’t admit it.

This was a pearler of a night, with Flying Scribble, Qua and the Mountains In The Sky. Gray’s (FS) Drums stood out as really superlative, with inventive and original rhythms. They couldn’t see the crowd, because of the lights, but the crowd totally appreciated them. There were many cries for more.

Qua and MitS hit the straps with the crowd, but hey FS just booted their wicked beats into the stratosphere.

i’m glad i saw this gig. What a joy.

Drums and versus amazing sound systems.

How delightful is the sun! When you haven’t had a holiday in over a year, there is truly nothing like a work-sponsored trip to Byron Bay. Yes i am the luckiest person alive, no doubt about that. Here’s the whole story:

• got bitten by a tick the very first night, and it still hurts three weeks later (on my ear)
• went to a super boring cultural evening, where the local singers all had US accents
• narrowly avoided a brown snake crawling across my sarong
• drove my hire car for 200km along unsealed roads (trying not to read the ‘thou shalt not’ sticker prominent on the windscreen), then later took all the wheels off to sweep out the tell-tale orange dust
  
• went to the most outrageously stupid ‘rainbow gathering’
• watched really bad cable tv

on the plus side

• saw whales and dolphins frolicking all over the shop, pretty much parading down the main street
  
• sat in on new enrolments at the Byron Community Centre
  
• had a whole cabin to myself for days on end
  
• 
• walked fifteen kilometres along Belongil Beach to Brunswick Heads, and back in a day
• bought organic carrots in the Mullumbimby grocery
• swam in blissfully cold mountain springs in the Washpool National Park. mmmmm that was good.

so i came back, brown all over, with knotted hair, and in a very tranquil state, but in need of a strong cultural fix. Lou suggested a gig down at Glitch bar on the Sunday night, just as i got off the plane. Enclosed in a small dingy dark bar in north fitzroy surrounded by strange young people wearing black and making weird musical noises .. i felt so at home.

So i had a go at playing indoor soccer. The boss got a team together, and joined us into a competition at the council. We were so bad, we lost again and again, eg 13 goals to 3.

The other teams played rough, although it was supposed to be friendly, and they had skills – which we did not. Rohan could do a fair simulation of Maradona, Maria kicked a major goal, and Nick the coach was a real player, but i could barely stay upright. Massive hand bruises thanks to falling on hard gym surface. Ouch.

Trying to drive later on, had to get Louise to operate the gear stick. Too friking painful. That’s it, i’m over sport for ever.

xo michael

(image, The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick by Gertrud K. at flickr, thanks)

Madame Zu Zu plays classic old cabaret numbers with a European flavour. This Lady, She is Extraordinary and Exciting!

From the tantalising tempo of frustration in “Perhaps”, to the sumptuous delights of “Besame”, Zu Zu had the Studio crowd jumping.

The night was hot, the dance floor was on fire, all because of this stunning and virtuoso performance.

mmm, more please!

Mmm Zu Zu at Open Studio

i’ve had another buckwheat experience ..

Saturday night was so great, Madame Zu Zu was in fine form, and the Open Studio crowd so much more into her than at Bar Open the week before. Dancing everywhere. Lovely vibes, happy people.

..but then i tried one of the new crepes.

i was so looking forward to it. and i tested for buckwheat reaction before diving in; but i really should have asked. i must be healthy at the moment because it took three mouthfuls to set me off. so i went home, and fortunately had a couple of Finurgen tablets left over from the time i had to go to hospital after my birthday pizza night last year ..

The tablets stop all the symptoms and allow me to sleep. Good.
but, oh boy, a couple of Finurgen tablets would knock out a horse!

The next morning i couldn’t move, i could barely talk. Tim and Sam came around, wanting to take me out to breakfast, and all i could say was “Bbbckwhhht lllst nght, ca’nnt mmmv”

.. and i’m still feeling groggy monday morning;

PS Later that month: the new sign reads Crepes (Buckwheat). Thanks.

xox, michael

(image: hi dad by tashland at flickr)

Hello Paul, this is the Jamie Lidell guy i was talking about .. wild electro soul ..

performing multiply live

Video clip for you got me up

okay i’m at work, so i shouldn’t be looking at YouTube. Except i was looking for work reasons. i wanted some music related to time: all i could find was a Snow Patrol song from that horrible tv show “prison break”. Which i used in class. The kids thought it was lame (they were right), but they picked up it was about ‘doing time’ (which i’d missed).

.. and i don’t work in a cubicle. But this lady does. Well she pretends she does. There’s one episode where she gets people to send in photos of people crammed into their work cubicle. There’s another where she puts on a super hero outfit, and decodes some management speak. i think she’s funny. Here’s my favourite, Cube Lady’s take on office romance:

Anyway you can follow her crazy adventures at the cubefarm.
Hey who was that magician that Nathan loves?
The one who convinces people on the street to hand over their valuables?

i am very envious.
Here is a pic of Tim, Fiona, Sasha and Paul on the train in New York City. i’m following their adventures over on samandtim.blogspot. Their blog is like a fun game, where the reader has to make up what’s going on, from the pictures and the headings.

ok, here goes:
SamandTim and PaulandFiona are on a train, with Sasha, and the train is in New York. They are all travelling from the bronx zoo back to the hotel where they’ll have dinner. And Sasha is drinking from his favourite red cup. Just after Sam took the photo, Paul sighed and said, “Are you ever going to stop taking photos?” Which nearly made Fiona snap at him. But she took a deep breath instead.

Tim is grinning because he loves seeing Sam do funny things on the subway; she’s being zany while she handles the camera. Sam made a joke after taking the shot, and everyone laughed. Then Sasha looked up and smiled, saying, “Was i in the photo?”

PS Funky Shirt, Paul!

The other week, i saw Martin Martini and the Bone Palace Orchestra playing the outdoor stage for the new northcote town hall/ outdoor space.

Aah magic, brilliant musicians on stage, and about twenty people in the audience. i don’t know who was in charge of publicity, but it was so far from the time this mob played Open Studio at the ’06 High Vibes festival (around the corner). That day there were people dancing up the walls.

it was funny, because i could hear them from my backyard, but i was having one of those “i’m not going out” days. finally i dragged my sorry behind onto the street, and recognised their sounds before i saw them. i got there to find Lynne in the audience, “i was going to text you,” she said.

Caught the last five songs, but how could i be so lazy!! Maybe that was it, the whole of Northcote knew, but they were having one of those “Tell me it’s not winter” days.

hey guess what, handing in thesis right now!!

yes i feel very amazing, totally thrilled and completely happy. Oh the relief. Now i can go out dancing every night for a week.

it was a chilly wednesday morning when i finally had the whole thing printed off and bound. Had to print several pages double sided with colour vs b/w. Hours at the office after work. Drove to Footscray, returned half a million library books, and handed over the two-inch thick volume. “Well that must be a relief,” said the head of department. Yeah. i’ll be feeling that relief for months!