Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Music - 'The Suburbs' by Arcade Fire.
So here we are again.
Superlatives aside, Arcade Fire have had the time of it since emerging from their frozen-white home place in 2003; withered and widescreen and willing to tell all and sundry about it. And on their third album, even more than their other two, they are looking to make those statements that connect with you, and your heart and your head,and at the same time circumvent the walls and wheels you have put in place to keep other, less-deserving 'landscapists' out. Horizon rock is ok again, yeah.
And it is.They are close again here to the flat wall of emotion, in step with Win Butler's chosen subject matter and full of the usuals (Community, Family and 'the kids').The songs wrap around, returning to the places and feelings they were pulling against in 'Funeral' - Their 'Thirty-something' record, after being painfully dragged out of adolescence in their debut, and getting lost in pot and politics in an apartment far off campus on 'Neon Bible'....
The shining examples here are many - 'Rococo' with it's kiddish singalong sense and off edge tone,'Suburban War'- which hints of 'Wonderful Life' in it's verses before driving off to the corner store , and 'Sprawl II' - which brings some classic Arcade Fire sounds into new life, with an electro beat and Regine's pine-fresh vocals.
The album may have one or two tracks too many to cope with; 'Month of May' is a b-side, and 'Deep Blue' gets to hang around purely due to it's escalating lalala's, but the rest complete each other, building into two distinct halves, that not only refuse to produce radio friendly anthems, but promise that it may be awhile before they do again...
Arena Rock without the Anthems? Arcade Fire prove again that they have a hardwire into what people may or may not want to feel, before they even know it themselves.
JK
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Sick
So sickness has me by my proverbial's,and I am already over it as they are bent on saying here in Sydney... What does this give me time to do? JH's new blog (re: Nut Job) seems almost marketing-like in it's timeliness, as while certainly not in the same boat, I have faced three days with not much to do (apart from the constant want of sleep) - So I listen to new music, and watch more Lost and try and be sympathetic to friends in rough places in different world venues (chin up, folks!)... The saving for world travels does grate, as does the inevitable waiting - We are busy and yet stagnant, which is a lousy conundrum...
So we smile and laugh, and have more silly conversations...and see more bands (it nearly killed us to go, but the Pixies were STAGGERINGLY good), and watch more docos, and make more plans :)
Apologies; I need to get more writing out there, but this whine was necessary as a 'cleanser'...back to some good stuff...
JK
So we smile and laugh, and have more silly conversations...and see more bands (it nearly killed us to go, but the Pixies were STAGGERINGLY good), and watch more docos, and make more plans :)
Apologies; I need to get more writing out there, but this whine was necessary as a 'cleanser'...back to some good stuff...
JK
Monday, February 8, 2010
Beginnings of New Beginnings......
Hey there fact finders, and welcome to the other side of a successful, if tortuously short/alcoholic/Baltic trip home over Christmas...
...and what have we discovered? That we miss home? yes, yes we do... That we think we've realized what we want to do for the rest of our days...well, yes we think we have....That we've finally decided that JH has gotten off far too lightly, and needs someone to annoy the shit out of him? DAMN STRAIGHT.
So we are coming home for good...eventually. Come Christmas time this year, we will forthrightly remove ourselves from Australia's ample sunny bosom, and return to the wet left nostril of our homeland.
This too means the completion of the Tour of Infamy 2007 (which may now be known as Please God Let Us At Least Get To Japan Before Something Goes Wrong 2011 - suggestions are accepted), before arriving in Dublin in May of that year....
So send messages and say hi if you have'nt in a while, and make sure you get JH's blog onto your regular reading pattern - he does tell such delightful stories....
CYL8R,
JK
...and what have we discovered? That we miss home? yes, yes we do... That we think we've realized what we want to do for the rest of our days...well, yes we think we have....That we've finally decided that JH has gotten off far too lightly, and needs someone to annoy the shit out of him? DAMN STRAIGHT.
So we are coming home for good...eventually. Come Christmas time this year, we will forthrightly remove ourselves from Australia's ample sunny bosom, and return to the wet left nostril of our homeland.
This too means the completion of the Tour of Infamy 2007 (which may now be known as Please God Let Us At Least Get To Japan Before Something Goes Wrong 2011 - suggestions are accepted), before arriving in Dublin in May of that year....
So send messages and say hi if you have'nt in a while, and make sure you get JH's blog onto your regular reading pattern - he does tell such delightful stories....
CYL8R,
JK
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Pains in the Back.....
Question:
How do you get rid of a pain in the back? Is it as easy as candy from a babe, or as tough as removing the proverbial monkey from the same body part....it's all relative I suppose, but still.....
Most will know that as a result of certain events, I have been having small difficulties with my lower back, and was seeing a physio/osteopath for the later part of last year...lots of explaining and exercises that made me look like a cat having sex in slow motion....
So I've had some more problems, and possibly through a Guilt pang, my guy in the 'trade' decided last week to bring out the fancy toys to appease me...and after getting an ultrasound for the areas in which I had the issue (cue the silly pregnancy joke i made that he NEVER heard before), he brought out a 12 inch knitting needle and jabbed it into my back...
Ok, so a little exaggeration, but it was basically a large acupuncture needle...that after finding the deeply located muscle (deeply as it its attached directly to my spine, on the inside),and jabbing it in to said spot....he flicked it.
Now I'm not so sure about all of you, but this slightly distressed me...especially when he gave no warning of what he was going to do....is flicking a medical method, that people are trained to do in college, with the correct style and pressure,and given marks on.. or is it just showing off; a physiotherapists version of pulling a wheelie.......but low and behold, all better, it reset the muscle and I have been (touch all the great Sequoia in Canada) all clear since....
So if a man flicks a needle in your direction, pay him due homage, but maybe try and get out of being charged $100 for his sadistic 'jollies'
How do you get rid of a pain in the back? Is it as easy as candy from a babe, or as tough as removing the proverbial monkey from the same body part....it's all relative I suppose, but still.....
Most will know that as a result of certain events, I have been having small difficulties with my lower back, and was seeing a physio/osteopath for the later part of last year...lots of explaining and exercises that made me look like a cat having sex in slow motion....
So I've had some more problems, and possibly through a Guilt pang, my guy in the 'trade' decided last week to bring out the fancy toys to appease me...and after getting an ultrasound for the areas in which I had the issue (cue the silly pregnancy joke i made that he NEVER heard before), he brought out a 12 inch knitting needle and jabbed it into my back...
Ok, so a little exaggeration, but it was basically a large acupuncture needle...that after finding the deeply located muscle (deeply as it its attached directly to my spine, on the inside),and jabbing it in to said spot....he flicked it.
Now I'm not so sure about all of you, but this slightly distressed me...especially when he gave no warning of what he was going to do....is flicking a medical method, that people are trained to do in college, with the correct style and pressure,and given marks on.. or is it just showing off; a physiotherapists version of pulling a wheelie.......but low and behold, all better, it reset the muscle and I have been (touch all the great Sequoia in Canada) all clear since....
So if a man flicks a needle in your direction, pay him due homage, but maybe try and get out of being charged $100 for his sadistic 'jollies'
Sunday, March 15, 2009
All Change.../ 'Watchmen' review
So the blog gets a new name, I have a new job, and I deliver a promise to deal more niceties and less expletives towards the general public on a more regular occasion...
Todays Ravings:- Watchmen
Right, so I have read the Original Series, but had not memorized it, nor re-named my children appropriate monikers from the several characters....How does the tale of the 'Big Blue Pipe' fare on the big screen?
A deserved 'meh'.
Begining very pointedly, with a great use of opening sequence to get a lot of exposition dealt with, Watchmen is brave and full of ambition for trying to capture one of the most dense works in Comic History, and also, we need to remember, that almost consistently deals with its 'heroes' with a dour and vindictive hatred. Moore never liked these people, he only sees their flaws, never their potential.The film makes sure you never get the chance to either.
In ambition and scope, we have the films only saving graces. Hard to swallow, difficult to align with anyones emotional state, and badly structured, director Snyder has managed certain parts well (Rorschach being intact is one, but even still that is mostly down to Jackie Hayley for his thrilling out of mask performance). However, lines/whole passages of Moore's fantastic dialogue are thrown away by a combination of bad, mumbly acting,being overpowered by a very loud sound effect/poorly chose song, or simply that the piece of prose is trying to get out of the way of the next large explosion or blue naked appendage.
My biggest complaint...? The Watchmen here are treated like heroes..in the book, the action set pieces had the dialogue to counteract the heroic actions, reminding that these people were only ever 'heroes' by their own beliefs/necessities, not anyone else's.... So we get the cool looking, slowed down action sequences of people doing amazing things in flash rubber costumes. Which is what the source is trying to rally against.
A failed experiment (possibly from the start), the film is not horrifically bad, as some have burnt into it already (how quickly we all forget 'Ghost Rider'!), but it's soon to be released over 4 hour re-cut can only add to it's already uneven pacing, and Bargain Bin destination.
JK
Todays Ravings:- Watchmen
Right, so I have read the Original Series, but had not memorized it, nor re-named my children appropriate monikers from the several characters....How does the tale of the 'Big Blue Pipe' fare on the big screen?
A deserved 'meh'.
Begining very pointedly, with a great use of opening sequence to get a lot of exposition dealt with, Watchmen is brave and full of ambition for trying to capture one of the most dense works in Comic History, and also, we need to remember, that almost consistently deals with its 'heroes' with a dour and vindictive hatred. Moore never liked these people, he only sees their flaws, never their potential.The film makes sure you never get the chance to either.
In ambition and scope, we have the films only saving graces. Hard to swallow, difficult to align with anyones emotional state, and badly structured, director Snyder has managed certain parts well (Rorschach being intact is one, but even still that is mostly down to Jackie Hayley for his thrilling out of mask performance). However, lines/whole passages of Moore's fantastic dialogue are thrown away by a combination of bad, mumbly acting,being overpowered by a very loud sound effect/poorly chose song, or simply that the piece of prose is trying to get out of the way of the next large explosion or blue naked appendage.
My biggest complaint...? The Watchmen here are treated like heroes..in the book, the action set pieces had the dialogue to counteract the heroic actions, reminding that these people were only ever 'heroes' by their own beliefs/necessities, not anyone else's.... So we get the cool looking, slowed down action sequences of people doing amazing things in flash rubber costumes. Which is what the source is trying to rally against.
A failed experiment (possibly from the start), the film is not horrifically bad, as some have burnt into it already (how quickly we all forget 'Ghost Rider'!), but it's soon to be released over 4 hour re-cut can only add to it's already uneven pacing, and Bargain Bin destination.
JK
Monday, March 2, 2009
Me and my Couch...
A quick Blog note on the happy relationship that a man can have with his Couch, and the many ways complete friendships can be ruined by sitting incorrectly, or even worse, letting a particularly spicy curry/chili come between you and your sitting utensil....
or just something for me to write up, as I am so very bored with this unemployment game.... We are both well, and sticking our heads firmly in the ground for fear of having to look at bank account balances. Their have been small things to keep us busy; Surprise 30th birthdays for mates here, playing soccer in the evenings (that was amusing to watch) and stealing as many TV shows as possible from D'Internets...and then not watching them.
So as not to have completely wasted all your individual times with some slap-flappery, please let me present the funniest thing I have seen in ages....
Here Cookie Fun!!
Bye Bye..
J
or just something for me to write up, as I am so very bored with this unemployment game.... We are both well, and sticking our heads firmly in the ground for fear of having to look at bank account balances. Their have been small things to keep us busy; Surprise 30th birthdays for mates here, playing soccer in the evenings (that was amusing to watch) and stealing as many TV shows as possible from D'Internets...and then not watching them.
So as not to have completely wasted all your individual times with some slap-flappery, please let me present the funniest thing I have seen in ages....
Here Cookie Fun!!
Bye Bye..
J
Thursday, January 29, 2009
'Fun-Time': Gig 3 and Gig 4....and 5.
So, 'more of the same?' I hear you all whinge.... yes, yes, an emphatic YES!.
I will continue to bore you about personal details, as there is only so much of my crap that Facebook Chat can take (I think this may be the reason the new one is so remarkably bollox...too much shite)...
This week, a tale of three Festivals, three venues and three very different type's of music fan... (all photos on my Facebook)
All Tomorrow's Parties Festival, Cockatoo Island, Sydney.
A Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds Curated One day festival, with Spiritualized and a bunch of people I'd only ever heard whispered about on Pitchfork??? Count me in, I said...throwing down some hefty dollars for tickets...indeed, the steep cost and the rubbish food nearly scuppered the ATP (only 3k people turned up to the two-day version in Melbourne...but that WAS up the side of a mountain in the middle of fucking no-where).
Where to start...I've already placed a lot of pictures on Facebook here, with descriptions, so I won't repeat...but the setting was some sort of ex-prison complex for Irish 'bad-people', mixed with the Industrial Zone from the 'Crystal Maze'...all scary warehouses and stone/cement outhouses...A lot of the bands were equally scary.. Beaches, The Stabs and the amazing Afrirampo all brought the noise (and certainly the headliners were full of 'Drunken Uncle at a Wedding' libido and sleaze...) Pop sensibilities were equally catered to: Ex-Go Between Robert Foster was very 'gentle and sway', and Spiritualized and Dead Meadows brought chilled out vibes and Southern Rock Boogie in buckets...and the headliners themselves, who seemed quite inebriated and all the more glorious for it, tore through a great mix of old and new..(and a glorious version of Love-Letter)
Best one day fest since Radiohead in Galway in (gulp!) 1996? Yes.
Big Day Out, Olympic Park, Sydney.
You see all the moaning we do about idiot 14 year olds setting fire to tents and giving us dirty sideway looks at Oxegen every year, while we cower behind our bottles of Shiraz at Electric Picnic? See all the crying about the beer queues and the shit food and the shite sound and the men pissing everywhere they can, just because they can? Just come to a 'Big Day Out' and see the nadir of 'ripping kids off is easy/Lets hit someone' in it's most pure evil form.
Yes, there were good things...Neil Young with a perfectly pitched greatest hits set in front of a small but appreciative crowd (he played 'Old Man' and 'Needle and the Damage Done' :) ), the lines for beer were not as bad as I whimpered about earlier and the Drones, My Morning Jacket and TV on the Radio were a great middle of the day threesome.....
...but the sound in the main/any area was atrocious unless you were standing right in front of either of the stages, the crowds were impossible to hack through and the atmosphere was of a piss poor nature (and when did the Arctic Monkeys get so good that they could care so little and SLEEPWALK through a set?).And they closed off the Prodigy in a warehouse and wouldn't let more than 10 people in. And Bogan Glory was well in effect. Scary...
and this was a 'quiet one'?
A Day on the Green presents Leonard Cohen; Bimgarden Wine Estate, Hunter Valley, NSW.
My first ever 'Sit-Down, Outside' gig. Impeccably ran, great food, the best outdoor sound I have ever heard,and painless to get in and out of.It was held in a Winery, so bottles of the stuff was everywhere. Stunning view, nice friendly people...all-in all conclusive proof that I am now 53 (the average age of attendees) and need to hand in my 'Concert Pass' for a zimmerframe.
and Leonard Cohen... How MutherF***ing cool is Leonard Cohen. He's 74 but he skips on and off the stage all night.... He plays for 3 hours (not including a 20 min break) and does 5 encores. He managed to make all the misguided disco-themed stuff from his '80's record sound decent....and he is the most gracious performer I have ever seen (with some of the most lovely backing singers I have ever seen). Bowie gig in 2003 only beats this because I'm more familiar with the White Dukes career.
Which I will amend quite quickly.
Legend.
I will continue to bore you about personal details, as there is only so much of my crap that Facebook Chat can take (I think this may be the reason the new one is so remarkably bollox...too much shite)...
This week, a tale of three Festivals, three venues and three very different type's of music fan... (all photos on my Facebook)
All Tomorrow's Parties Festival, Cockatoo Island, Sydney.
A Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds Curated One day festival, with Spiritualized and a bunch of people I'd only ever heard whispered about on Pitchfork??? Count me in, I said...throwing down some hefty dollars for tickets...indeed, the steep cost and the rubbish food nearly scuppered the ATP (only 3k people turned up to the two-day version in Melbourne...but that WAS up the side of a mountain in the middle of fucking no-where).
Where to start...I've already placed a lot of pictures on Facebook here, with descriptions, so I won't repeat...but the setting was some sort of ex-prison complex for Irish 'bad-people', mixed with the Industrial Zone from the 'Crystal Maze'...all scary warehouses and stone/cement outhouses...A lot of the bands were equally scary.. Beaches, The Stabs and the amazing Afrirampo all brought the noise (and certainly the headliners were full of 'Drunken Uncle at a Wedding' libido and sleaze...) Pop sensibilities were equally catered to: Ex-Go Between Robert Foster was very 'gentle and sway', and Spiritualized and Dead Meadows brought chilled out vibes and Southern Rock Boogie in buckets...and the headliners themselves, who seemed quite inebriated and all the more glorious for it, tore through a great mix of old and new..(and a glorious version of Love-Letter)
Best one day fest since Radiohead in Galway in (gulp!) 1996? Yes.
Big Day Out, Olympic Park, Sydney.
You see all the moaning we do about idiot 14 year olds setting fire to tents and giving us dirty sideway looks at Oxegen every year, while we cower behind our bottles of Shiraz at Electric Picnic? See all the crying about the beer queues and the shit food and the shite sound and the men pissing everywhere they can, just because they can? Just come to a 'Big Day Out' and see the nadir of 'ripping kids off is easy/Lets hit someone' in it's most pure evil form.
Yes, there were good things...Neil Young with a perfectly pitched greatest hits set in front of a small but appreciative crowd (he played 'Old Man' and 'Needle and the Damage Done' :) ), the lines for beer were not as bad as I whimpered about earlier and the Drones, My Morning Jacket and TV on the Radio were a great middle of the day threesome.....
...but the sound in the main/any area was atrocious unless you were standing right in front of either of the stages, the crowds were impossible to hack through and the atmosphere was of a piss poor nature (and when did the Arctic Monkeys get so good that they could care so little and SLEEPWALK through a set?).And they closed off the Prodigy in a warehouse and wouldn't let more than 10 people in. And Bogan Glory was well in effect. Scary...
and this was a 'quiet one'?
A Day on the Green presents Leonard Cohen; Bimgarden Wine Estate, Hunter Valley, NSW.
My first ever 'Sit-Down, Outside' gig. Impeccably ran, great food, the best outdoor sound I have ever heard,and painless to get in and out of.It was held in a Winery, so bottles of the stuff was everywhere. Stunning view, nice friendly people...all-in all conclusive proof that I am now 53 (the average age of attendees) and need to hand in my 'Concert Pass' for a zimmerframe.
and Leonard Cohen... How MutherF***ing cool is Leonard Cohen. He's 74 but he skips on and off the stage all night.... He plays for 3 hours (not including a 20 min break) and does 5 encores. He managed to make all the misguided disco-themed stuff from his '80's record sound decent....and he is the most gracious performer I have ever seen (with some of the most lovely backing singers I have ever seen). Bowie gig in 2003 only beats this because I'm more familiar with the White Dukes career.
Which I will amend quite quickly.
Legend.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Janurary Fun Time: Gig 1 and 2
Well Folks..
As we wander through the valley, and I get off my ass and try to get a job, we get to January and finally, with our new Visa's all sorted...we hit all those gigs we bought tickets for what seems like 6 months ago.
So here are some personal lovely reviews etc of out musical odyssey that begins 2009...
Jamie Lidell: - The Forum, Fri 9th of Jan. (images below from fasterlouder.com.au)
Mr Liddell and his crazy crew of near pension age session players jammed out the Forum in Fox Studios on this Friday night; and after practically sitting beside the man himself, as we ate in the same establishment beforehand, there was no way of knowing just how great the gig would be later on.
There need have been no worry, as the band and Mr Lidell sprung into summer as a very flower themed set glowed around them. Hitting songs from both albums, and also taking us on an extended solo vocal performance through his effects table, Mr Lidell was in fine form throughout as the crowd danced and boogied their way through into the night. Finishing at close to 12 midnight with debut album stomp 'Multiply', the evening should prove an excellent start to musical fun!
Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings - Sydney Festival First Night, Sat 10th of Jan:-
Similarly the following night, in amongst such stellar co-acts as Grace Jones and Santogold (all for free, i'll remind), the 'Godmother of Soul' was in fine form... At 52 years old, and dancing for every second, Sharon Jones and the god-awfully tight Dap Kings gave all they have rightfully earned over their last 10 years. Dragging people on stage, some more successful at participating than others, Miss Jones runs her gig as old as school can get; the songs, most coming from their latest album, sound so familiar they fit the 'revue' show style they are presented in, and as she blisters the stage in bare feet, there is not one onlooker left not swaying or nodding their heads once the plus 1.5hr set finishes with '100 Days, 100 Nights'. Free entertainment has a lot to live up to after this.
(link here for their headline gig at the Becks Festival Bar, again from fasterlouder, the night after to give some idea of their funkiness..)
Next week - Dark Tales from an Island of Birds : Full review of All Tomorrow's Parties at Cockatoo Island: Curated and featuring Nick Cave and the Bad seeds......
As we wander through the valley, and I get off my ass and try to get a job, we get to January and finally, with our new Visa's all sorted...we hit all those gigs we bought tickets for what seems like 6 months ago.
So here are some personal lovely reviews etc of out musical odyssey that begins 2009...
Jamie Lidell: - The Forum, Fri 9th of Jan. (images below from fasterlouder.com.au)
Mr Liddell and his crazy crew of near pension age session players jammed out the Forum in Fox Studios on this Friday night; and after practically sitting beside the man himself, as we ate in the same establishment beforehand, there was no way of knowing just how great the gig would be later on.
There need have been no worry, as the band and Mr Lidell sprung into summer as a very flower themed set glowed around them. Hitting songs from both albums, and also taking us on an extended solo vocal performance through his effects table, Mr Lidell was in fine form throughout as the crowd danced and boogied their way through into the night. Finishing at close to 12 midnight with debut album stomp 'Multiply', the evening should prove an excellent start to musical fun!
Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings - Sydney Festival First Night, Sat 10th of Jan:-
Similarly the following night, in amongst such stellar co-acts as Grace Jones and Santogold (all for free, i'll remind), the 'Godmother of Soul' was in fine form... At 52 years old, and dancing for every second, Sharon Jones and the god-awfully tight Dap Kings gave all they have rightfully earned over their last 10 years. Dragging people on stage, some more successful at participating than others, Miss Jones runs her gig as old as school can get; the songs, most coming from their latest album, sound so familiar they fit the 'revue' show style they are presented in, and as she blisters the stage in bare feet, there is not one onlooker left not swaying or nodding their heads once the plus 1.5hr set finishes with '100 Days, 100 Nights'. Free entertainment has a lot to live up to after this.
(link here for their headline gig at the Becks Festival Bar, again from fasterlouder, the night after to give some idea of their funkiness..)
Next week - Dark Tales from an Island of Birds : Full review of All Tomorrow's Parties at Cockatoo Island: Curated and featuring Nick Cave and the Bad seeds......
Friday, December 12, 2008
ooo looky here....an update
So...It's X-Mas time, and there's no need to be a ....gnome. Or something to that effect.
Anywhoo..... I did promise one industrious (see 'pushy') listener we would get an auld seasonal update for this here blog type thingy, but all I could find suitable was this old Super 8 film left by a French couple who lived in our flat in the early '60's....
Enjoy!
(click on the pic to enjoy a low bandwidth friendly version, or press play below for scary HD Shenanigans)
Anywhoo..... I did promise one industrious (see 'pushy') listener we would get an auld seasonal update for this here blog type thingy, but all I could find suitable was this old Super 8 film left by a French couple who lived in our flat in the early '60's....
Enjoy!
(click on the pic to enjoy a low bandwidth friendly version, or press play below for scary HD Shenanigans)
Monday, July 7, 2008
I've been working on the railroad......'
Well all...it has been a little bit of time since I updated this sucker...so let me apologize to all who were inquiring...(ok, just elaine!) as to what has been going on etc....
..and the surprising answer is not much. Work continues to complex and perplex me as I try to stay away from the egos and the bitching, yet now seemingly end up in the middle of it...it is wearing very thin let me tell you.... Middle of Winter, yet we finally get a sunny weekend after a snap of the auld cold frontage across our bow... hmmm, too many ship references is a bad way to go...
Katya is well in her new job working for Centracare, advising and meeting with families and people in one of Sydneys less well off areas...and she gets motorised next week! Huzzah! So we will have a little silver bullet to whisk us to places as far away as the shops!
and I forgot to book the present JH got for me last year, which makes me a complete tool....
Bday celebrations are planned to be a little quiet this year (an earthquake would have been quieter than last years!) so we will continue down the road and see where we end up....
Mail us and stuff, or post comments here, or find us on facebook!
J
..and the surprising answer is not much. Work continues to complex and perplex me as I try to stay away from the egos and the bitching, yet now seemingly end up in the middle of it...it is wearing very thin let me tell you.... Middle of Winter, yet we finally get a sunny weekend after a snap of the auld cold frontage across our bow... hmmm, too many ship references is a bad way to go...
Katya is well in her new job working for Centracare, advising and meeting with families and people in one of Sydneys less well off areas...and she gets motorised next week! Huzzah! So we will have a little silver bullet to whisk us to places as far away as the shops!
and I forgot to book the present JH got for me last year, which makes me a complete tool....
Bday celebrations are planned to be a little quiet this year (an earthquake would have been quieter than last years!) so we will continue down the road and see where we end up....
Mail us and stuff, or post comments here, or find us on facebook!
J
Sunday, March 16, 2008
News fit to print.......... MOVING!!!
Hey there, sports fans....
Its nearly April and we get another chance to chat again... Hows the wife? Did you check out that local sports team? You should really see a doctor for that.....etc,etc,etc...
'Constant stream of thought' blog...for a change...
First and last mention of this...new REM album is very enjoyable, and heaps better than the last one, and also the one before that. Sicofantic rant over.
Things that are going on here...In a vain attempt to conform to the rest of the world, Sydney seems to be getting warmer as we creep towards May etc...We roasted last weekend whilst looking for our new.....
FLAT!
Depite a little haranguing from various sources (and more ID checks than I had to get when I applied for a mortgage) we have out new flat, deep in the horribly fashionable and very bohemien King St, in Newtown...So for the emmense and imminent presents and post we expect, please forward all to
203, 58/60 King St, Newtown, NSW 2042
where we will use the envelopes to paper the walls...
Katya is very well (well not at the minute, she's a little under the Auld Weather, which is a pub in Coogee) ...Coogee Bear Daycare continues to do its best to entertain her (or is she entertaining them. we aint sure)
My job continues to be all day, every day and in every way, busy....... i may be able to talk to someone in a normal way sometime on Friday at 2.50pm.
We'll get some more pics and stuff up soon....write us!
goodbye.
J
Its nearly April and we get another chance to chat again... Hows the wife? Did you check out that local sports team? You should really see a doctor for that.....etc,etc,etc...
'Constant stream of thought' blog...for a change...
First and last mention of this...new REM album is very enjoyable, and heaps better than the last one, and also the one before that. Sicofantic rant over.
Things that are going on here...In a vain attempt to conform to the rest of the world, Sydney seems to be getting warmer as we creep towards May etc...We roasted last weekend whilst looking for our new.....
FLAT!
Depite a little haranguing from various sources (and more ID checks than I had to get when I applied for a mortgage) we have out new flat, deep in the horribly fashionable and very bohemien King St, in Newtown...So for the emmense and imminent presents and post we expect, please forward all to
203, 58/60 King St, Newtown, NSW 2042
where we will use the envelopes to paper the walls...
Katya is very well (well not at the minute, she's a little under the Auld Weather, which is a pub in Coogee) ...Coogee Bear Daycare continues to do its best to entertain her (or is she entertaining them. we aint sure)
My job continues to be all day, every day and in every way, busy....... i may be able to talk to someone in a normal way sometime on Friday at 2.50pm.
We'll get some more pics and stuff up soon....write us!
goodbye.
J
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Monday, January 28, 2008
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Happy New Year!
Well folks! 2007 has regenerated, Doctor Who-like, into 2008 and my what a year she was too... and Simian-escapades aside, I had lots of fun running around the world.... X-mas and New Year were very enjoyable; We spent the New Year in a very Posh event with a great view; Katya's Parents were over and after the INSANE Sydney fireworks we partied on to about 5 in Spectrum (our new favourite dive of a club) and ended up very worse for wear on Coogee beach at about 6!
And so things were seeming to flow back into the usual until more exciting and tremendous news hit... I have a new job...Due to some freeing up of positions, I currently have the position of Senior Supervisor with the Investor Relations company I have been working for, looking to take over as Call Centre Manager, after a three month probation period...Huzzah! The place is one of the more positive places I have worked so I am looking forward to the challenge and getting stuck in...
As you may gleam from this, they would be considering, all things going hunky-dory, that they would sponsor me (and with Katya on a defacto), so it may be a while before I am home....but it will be an encouragement for you all to visit...!
...and then we managed to get tickets to see Rage Against the Machine last Tuesday! Holy several shades of mackeral...one of the best gigs I have ever been to, they were simply on another planet....loud and very aggressive and exactly what you would hope they would be!! See. This.Band
and I finally got to see the Police live! and they were also very good (in a whole 'big gig' way...but if Sting ever plays the pan pipes that close to me again, I'm gonna puck him in the mouth!)
Lots of pics over the next few days (and hopefully some I can get some Rage footage I took onto You Tube!)...and we got internet in the flat, so more posts I promise!
See ye soon...
J
Lots of pics and
And so things were seeming to flow back into the usual until more exciting and tremendous news hit... I have a new job...Due to some freeing up of positions, I currently have the position of Senior Supervisor with the Investor Relations company I have been working for, looking to take over as Call Centre Manager, after a three month probation period...Huzzah! The place is one of the more positive places I have worked so I am looking forward to the challenge and getting stuck in...
As you may gleam from this, they would be considering, all things going hunky-dory, that they would sponsor me (and with Katya on a defacto), so it may be a while before I am home....but it will be an encouragement for you all to visit...!
...and then we managed to get tickets to see Rage Against the Machine last Tuesday! Holy several shades of mackeral...one of the best gigs I have ever been to, they were simply on another planet....loud and very aggressive and exactly what you would hope they would be!! See. This.Band
and I finally got to see the Police live! and they were also very good (in a whole 'big gig' way...but if Sting ever plays the pan pipes that close to me again, I'm gonna puck him in the mouth!)
Lots of pics over the next few days (and hopefully some I can get some Rage footage I took onto You Tube!)...and we got internet in the flat, so more posts I promise!
See ye soon...
J
Lots of pics and
Monday, December 10, 2007
...and....
...as Mr V. Casey Esq has kindly reminded me, anyone looking for an around the world x-mas card...please post address here (or email to antifyre@gmail.com) and I will t'ink abou'it....roight!.......
closing date for entries is next friday! (and please do not assume i have your address...I am but one man...one forgetful, slighty damaged man:))
closing date for entries is next friday! (and please do not assume i have your address...I am but one man...one forgetful, slighty damaged man:))
So...It actually did take this long to get sorted out!
Apologies for the length of time since the last post folks, but its been a strange month...
...of doing very little! Job situation in Sydney is very sparse and slow, especially as summer is coming (or now upon us), and new year, hopefully, will see a glut of jobs coming through...but have managed to get some casual gainful employment in a call centre in the CBD, doing some light Outbound non-sales stuff with a Stock Option group...not rocket science, not well paid, but its work...(just I write this, I may now have no work for the week... casually damn it!)
Flat is great and the four of us are settling in to our beach side lifestyles fairly well, and the whole house is now 'with job' (whether casual or full time), so its a little less scary... and before anyone starts wishing us bad thoughts over the weather difference, this has turned into the wettest December in Sydney history so far... with thunderstorms that are so frigthening it's not even funny..at all..
No lurvley photos or anything as yet(just of an ant-bitten foot!); have met up with some of the acting class and some old MBNA heads here, so the social is picking up a little...but mostly staying as quiet as possible and watching as many DVD's as I can (which is quite a lot, I have discovered....)
Hope your'e all well, I think it's time I looked at getting a job as 'local Irish Bowsie' on Home and Away.....
J
Hope your'e all well, I think it's time I looked at getting a job as 'local Irish Bowsie' on Home and Away.....
J
Sunday, November 11, 2007
South Africa Memories...Picture-rama!
Just some random photos of the last 4 weeks.... some will need explaining I suppose....but the asking and then telling is always the fun part!(If you click on the photos themselves, you get full screen versions of them; really worth it for some of the landscape shots!)
In other news, we have hidden ourselves away from Sydney so far to try and get over our horrible jet-lagged,rundown systems courtesy of the amazing-ness that is Mr Caoilte and Miss Melissa...Seriously, their hospitality knows no bounds, so you all need to get over here late 2009 for their wedding so you can test it!!!!
New apartment (very near beach and very lovely, I am assured) is being visited and moved into over the next few days.... my new OZ mobile is +61 414079397 if anyone wants to text or leave abusive phone calls.. I'm off to open a bank account and find a job!
bye,
J
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Goodbye Springboks, Hello Wallabies...
(long post, so large intake of breath....)
Our little tour of South Africa has come and gone and as we relax in the busom of Cape Town for another 5 day stay, we look back over the last two weeks with some trepdation (Away with the Fairies) and relaxtion (everywhere else....)
After our short stop in Grahamstown, we journeyed to Hogsback, the most beautiful area I have seen in ANY country for quite a longtime, and stayed in the Away with the Fairies hostel. As I have been kindly corrected (Cheers Mac!), Tolkien, while never probably having visited the place himself, has many a connection to this mountain range, and the locale certainly reminds of the books in many ways (check out amazing picture vistas! oooo!ahhhh!). By the way, if any of you ever goes on a small hike to a waterfall and someone in your party decides to 'just have a look over here', ignore them, go straight home and climb under the covers of your bed with a coffee and a good book....I had never gone on an 'accidental 4 Hour mountain climb in flip-flops' before, and I'm not sure I have the inner strength to do it again!
The hostel itself contained the nicest bunch of Alcoholics I have ever met and I dare not mention any more through recordable media of what went on during our 3 day bender there, only that I survived, and that I am happier for it.... ;)
After here, we moved to Buccaners in Cinste for some welcoming R&R, (of the quiet, reading lots, anti social kind) and healed all wounds by the Indian Ocean...although getting to the place somehow takes the shine away from it! Did kinda get chased by a lion in a game reserve, so that was pretty cool though....
Onwards to Graff-Reinet, a very different, very old-Afrikans town very near the Karoo...some lovely restuarants, well kept gardens and a little place called the Valley of Desolation.....
...which proceeded to blow Hogsback out of the water for sheer scale and size...again, the below shots do no justice to how incredible that view was (and yes the lizard was blue AND green!)...
More hiking here and a lovely tour of a Tequila factory at 10 in the morning (i'll explain when i get home...) and the penultimate spot on our trip, Nieu Bethesda, offically the quietest place in the world. Here, in the space of one morning we got a tour of an Agricultural site, the aforementioned tequila tasting, and a visit to one of the out of place art installations in the world, the Owl House...
A museum and tribute to the house's owner Helen, this fantastic look at colour and light was her life's work up to her death in the '70's, and I recommend that anyone interested Wikipedia or Google the place to find out more.....
Finally back to Rocky Road for a final drink (well, most of the Tequila and a 500 person Trance party in a backpackers in a wood is a bit more than a drink, but these things will happen when you are away..)... thanks so much to Rocky, Mac, Merix and all the folks there who were so very kind and welcoming, and also so very helpful and understanding through a very scary month and a half.... it was, and always will be, very much appreciated....so here's a photo greatest hits!
In injury news, the doctor has given an 'almost perfect' recovery update from my neck, and a view that if it continues this way, I am free from medical neck-warmers from the 15th of Dec, and on to a 100% recovery. Now if I can just recover the 3 stone I've lost, i'll be happy!
Going to sign this off now....its (pissing)raining in Cape Town (again!), but we did get out to see Mr Mandela's prison on Robben Island yesterday, which was sobering (apart from the HUGE amounts of Rabbits and Penguins everywhere....). A guy in a surf shop today told me to get a monkey tattoo on my neck before I leave, to remember the place by......I am really sick of this damn neckbrace!
Next post from Sydney, where we visit the newly-engaged Mr Dunne! Congats to Melissa and himself again, and I'll tap at you all in a week...
J
(p.s. I know there was meant to be some pics up here, will follow tomorrow due to technical difficulties!)
(p.s. I know there was meant to be some pics up here, will follow tomorrow due to technical difficulties!)
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
'Jefferson, I think we're lost....'
Quick one this,
Just to say we've left the mighty Rocky Road and are currently residing in the (possibly slowly dying) Frontier-College town of Grahamstown, on our little two week sojourn across the Eastern Cape....
All good to go, World Cup Final a little of an anticlimax (we were way too hungover from the night before...), and we are well on the way to getting ourselves lost in Greater SA....
Moving on in about an hour to an area called Hogsback, the spot where Tolkien was inspired by trips when he was a kid to come up with a lot of the areas for LOTR.... check out the website for the hostel we are staying in!......http://www.awaywiththefairies.co.za/.....very appropriate!
Before I split, a big 'Get Well Soon' to Elaine D, who managed to get herself involved in a mini Hit and Run in Argentina last friday....honestly, the dangerous situations my friends put themselves in when on holiday!!!! ;)......Seriously, be good and heal well my dear.....
Going off to some shopping for eating things now.....
Some photos during the week (when I'm not being timed by the evil Internet Cafe Controller!)
Bye!
J
Just to say we've left the mighty Rocky Road and are currently residing in the (possibly slowly dying) Frontier-College town of Grahamstown, on our little two week sojourn across the Eastern Cape....
All good to go, World Cup Final a little of an anticlimax (we were way too hungover from the night before...), and we are well on the way to getting ourselves lost in Greater SA....
Moving on in about an hour to an area called Hogsback, the spot where Tolkien was inspired by trips when he was a kid to come up with a lot of the areas for LOTR.... check out the website for the hostel we are staying in!......http://www.awaywiththefairies.co.za/.....very appropriate!
Before I split, a big 'Get Well Soon' to Elaine D, who managed to get herself involved in a mini Hit and Run in Argentina last friday....honestly, the dangerous situations my friends put themselves in when on holiday!!!! ;)......Seriously, be good and heal well my dear.....
Going off to some shopping for eating things now.....
Some photos during the week (when I'm not being timed by the evil Internet Cafe Controller!)
Bye!
J
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