Trysting Fields

Dinner Party IV

Saturday 10th April.

Starring Brendan, Duncan, Harrie, Luke, The Major, and Grimsey.

(11:11pm; 14min 12sec)

Like DP II, a relatively low-key occasion compared to DP I and DP III. (I don't know why, although I have many theories.)

(11:56pm; 4min 35sec)

All the same: went OFF.

(1:22am; 1min 22sec)

:)

Polyphonic Spree @ The Forum

Saturday 27th February.

With G and these people.

Thailand (Two)

Ko Lanta, 28th January.

Thailand (One)

Chiang Mai, 26th January.

After Going-Away Cocktails

At CH late last week with Kav (lurking), Petts, and the artist henceforward known as Lady GrimGrim. (Whose birthday it is today, incidentally. Happy birthday!)

Okay, I'm off to Thailand. Later, bitches. :)

HNY :)

Ange's Bad '80s Beach Party

5th December.

Smoko

28th-29th November.

Cheers Atkins (and Coulter - who told me to go, so I did).

:)

Friday Morning

Chez Hagakure Bong Summit

Attending; presiding.

Sitting Amongst The Wreckage

Watching Press Gang with Toots.

Teh life, it is good.

The housewarming afterparty was, as intended, a quiet affair. But it still went OFF. I blame this guy.

I have nothing else to declare except my ongoing, undying love for M2M. And that I have a new favourite word.

This is the first M2M video I ever saw, in 2002:

The final minute emerged randomly from under the end of something else I'd taped on purpose. I taped Video Hits all the way through for a month of Saturday mornings afterwards to catch it again. We had to do things like that in the dark days before YouTube and BitTorrent were invented.

Update - This footage is not particularly interesting content-wise, but I find Marit weirdly mesmerising in it:

I also like the bit where Marion asks Andrew G if he ate the worm.

I Want To Marry M2M

Yes, both of them.

Housewarming went OFF, btw. But that's hardly news.

UPDATE: What is news is that it went OFF so much it's been determined we need another, smaller one this Saturday to contain the fallout. There will be cigars, apparently. (And a Shisha! N - of K & N fame - totally gave me a Shisha for no particular reason. LFN!)

Meredith (Part One)

I went to the Meredith Festival on the weekend.

It was awse, and then some.

(From their Frequently Given Answers:

No, it is not possible to sneak in. Vicious dogs and armed mercenaries patrol the fences.

NB This is a total lie.)

(To be continued.)

Happy Birthday Again, Toots

(Previously.)

Actually, I get the feeling you'd deck me for calling you "toots". ("Mistress"?)

Even though I do not know you, etc.

Announcement: Everyone's Too Stupid

The Mishukis' much-discussed debut LP Everyone's Too Stupid is available at long last.

You can buy a copy for US$5.50 plus postage, or alternately build your own using these simple instructions.

My Audacity Has Paid Off

I am delighted to announce that on the strength of my genius, I have been invited by the legendary Nada Awad to displace her sister as the second full-time member of Are You Hungry.

I would also like to announce that we will be embarking on a major European tour next month on the back of our award-winning and critically acclaimed quintuple platinum forthcoming album "Chicken Has Gonorrhea".

It's true! I really would like to announce that.

I Wrote A Song About Adam

It's called "Adam Tenex". From conception to completion, the entire project took six and a half minutes. I am a genius.

I am going to submit this to Are You Hungry as an audition demo. I think they could use my genius.

UPDATE - I made a better version. This one took about an hour.

Man, I Just, Like, Voted

I wasn't planning to originally, but Semi talked me into it on the grounds that the Greens will likely take some seats away from serious politicians, which is always a good cause. I hope he is having fun at Earthcore. I imagine that he is.

I just voted for the Greens whilst tripping on leftover cactus, partly in his honor. I'm sure Bob Brown (with whom I once shared a taxi, whilst dressed as a giant koala - i'm sure it wasn't just a dream) would not disapprove. I tried to imagine what John Howard would feel. I tried to imagine him feeling pain in some way. How I tried. But all I could see was him going "stupid hippies; ah well, *shrugs*, they will all self-destruct soon enough anyway", and not understanding at all. Which kind of pissed me off, but did at least make me feel like, in some obscure way, I had not done entirely the wrong thing.

Now I am trying to decide whether to watch The Dark Crystal again. I fell asleep before the end last time.

~ has suggested to me that the girl Gelfling ultimately dies; but I feel sure that this cannot be the whole truth. Henson and Oz would not do that to me. They would not dare.

I will watch their silly movie, in any case. They can bring it. Doesn't matter if the chick dies; the whole healed-crystal thing redundifies such petty concerns.

Yes, it does.

Scary, Scary, Don't We Look Mean

(via The Wild Hunt.)

What Mishuki said.

Happy Halloween, everybody.

Life Is Good

nb clever peripheral utilization may or may not reveal secret hidden messages

Life is good.

What I Got For My Birthday

A can of whoop-ass Hagakure style yo Easy Surface Prep

A Discombobulator of my very own

Two bottles of apparently non-lethal Red Bull concentrate

Two bottles of Arrogant Frog sauvignon blanc

Two delicious, beautifully wrapped and generally special cupcakes (not shown)

Colourful and appealing multimedia art products

A hefty biography of John Fowles, bafflingly enough

A black 30 gigabyte iPod, which was nice

A Brave New World mug

Cards & chocolate

Amongst other things.

Thanks everyone. It was great!

I Can't Believe I Went Out Last Night

On the evening before my nite of nites, heh. But hey, I'm young (20), I can get away with that kind of thing.

Anyway. I got tagged with this ages ago. Generally I disregard such things but I actually saved this, against such a time as I would be able to do it.

That time is now.

What's On Your iPod?

4420 songs (12.4 days, 20.3 GB)
5 videos (28:24 minutes, 248 MB)
0 photos (0 MB)

Sorted by artist
First artist: The 5,6,7,8s
Last artist: Zamfir
(both tracks from the Kill Bill Vol 1 soundtrack, funnily enough)

Sorted by song title
First Song: 'Cello Song by Nick Drake
Last Song: Zyclon B. Zombie by Throbbing Gristle

Sorted by time
Shortest Song: 0:04, Harmonic Necklace by Penguin Cafe Orchestra
Longest Song: 31:31, All Apologies by Nirvana

Sorted by album
First Album: 13 by Blur
Last Album: Young Team by Mogwai

How many hits when you search for "sex"? 39
How many hits when you search for "death"? 19
How many hits when you search for "love"? 264
How many hits when you search for "angel"? 60
(more than sex & death combined, which is also funny)

How many playlists?
None as yet.

First ten songs that come up on shuffle
1. Singing The Blues by Tricky
2. Good Feeling by Violent Femmes
3. I Am The Resurrection by The Stone Roses
4. Sundrops by Kristin Hersh
5. Fait Accompli by Curve
6. Flying Dutchman by Tori Amos
7. Who Needs The Peace Corps by Frank Zappa
8. Electronic Renaissance by Belle & Sebastian
9. Drive You Home by Garbage
10. A Letter To Elise (Blue Mix) by The Cure

Ten most played songs
(nb these stats are inherited from iTunes and reflect a three-year legacy)
1. Katrina by Killing Heidi (194 plays)
2. The Reflecting God by Marilyn Manson (176 plays)
3. Queer by Garbage (154 plays)
4. Playboy Mommy by Tori Amos (148 plays)
5. For My Lover by Tracy Chapman (124 plays)
6. Watch Your Back by Avant Garde (117 plays)
7. Someday I'll Find You by Craig Armstrong & The London Symphony Orchestra feat. Shola Ama (112 plays)
8. A Sorta Fairytale by Tori Amos (98 plays)
9. Bad Ambassador by The Divine Comedy (84 plays)
10. I'm With You by Avril Lavigne (79 plays)

I tag LJ (and anyone else reading this with a blog and a proper motherfucking iPod).

Dear Billie,

I don't know if you're familiar with my Amazon wishlist. But if you are, you'll know that I've lately been looking to reacquire your first album, which I originally bought - much to my girlfriend at the time's disgust and bemusement - from the Tottenham Court Road Virgin Megastore shortly after it came out in 1998.

It was an indulgent, impulsive and kind of silly purchase.

I'd thought Because We Want To was a brilliant, stunning, classic, etc pop song. (And the way everyone just instinctively knew, well in advance of its release, that it was going to go in at number one and dethrone #$&% Three Lions '98 was a thing of beauty.)

But, y'know, I'd listened to most of your record on listening posts, and didn't actually even think it was really all that great.

I was basically a snobby indie kid. And besides, I didn't like you as much as B*Witched (whose LP, conversely, was the fucking bomb - and could legitimately be said to have changed my life, in a subtle kind of way).

But there was just Something About You. The way you stared piercingly out of the sleeve from under your hair, a paragon of innocent knowingery; and the matching combination you displayed in interviews of unquestionably genuine irrepressible-15-year-old-witnessing-all-her-dreams-coming-true wonderment and an equally unfakeable worldly-wise, seen-it-all intelligence. (And your tits. I liked your tits, also.)

You were just too cool.

And, hey, there were some nice songs on there. I Dream I'm Dancing remains a staple to this day. Honey To The Bee. Couple of good songs.

Sadly, that copy was stolen along with almost all my other CDs a few years later. Somehow, inexplicably, yours felt like one of the ones I was most gutted to lose, even though I could only ever have played it all the way through maybe five or six times.

Flash forward half a decade or so to a couple months ago and I'm watching an early episode of the excellent new series of Dr Who. And I suddenly decide that I want it back. You can't get all the tracks online anymore. I put it on my wishlist.

Late last week, finalising my previous eBay CD purchase, it occurs to me to search for it, and I find a copy - of the original UK release, with Because We Want To and Girlfriend tracked first, as it should be (although, you know, the US order works, too) - going for 99p, no bids, expiring in four hours. I grab it.

Today it arrived, extraordinarily quickly. I was really thrilled; much more so than I expected to be.

So I bring it inside, and whilst ripping it to the eMac, idly pull your Wikipedia page.

Try to imagine my surprise and delight as my eyes are scanning the opening line of the entry and relay to my brain the hitherto un(consciously)known fact that today is your birthday!

Happy 24th, Billie. Hope you're having a great one.

Love your work.

Very best wishes,

Teigan

Stuff I Did This Week

               

- Exhaustively cleaned the kitchen, the dining room, the hallway, the laundry, and the bathroom.

- Made sixteen phonecalls, took seven phonecalls, attended interviews with three people, and lodged one detailed & tedious application form in pursuit of new revenue streams. Ate dodgy Japanese food on Chapel Street; gawped at people hanging on Chapel Street.

- Visited Bentendo at his new place.

He has a very nice view of the city, which I was unable to photograph for security reasons

- Reincarnated my old mobile - which I thought I'd lost, eventually replaced, and later found - as a second phone, via the purchase of a $25 prepaid SIM card.

- Updated my address book and phone contacts.

- Succesfully enticed a professional tiler into assessing dire bathroom tile issue situation, pictured. (They refused to replace the tiles, arguing that the only meaningful solution was to retile the whole bathroom.)

- Made an elaborate pictoral blog post about cooking harira.

- Inspired by trawling my own blog archives, figured out how to region-unlock my DVD player.

- Made a disastrous birthday card.

- Stupidly trammed it all the way out to the RSPCA in Burwood East to buy a kitten, only to discover that - it not quite being kitten season yet, see - they didn't have any. (Note to self: next time ring ahead.)

- Got shitfaced at The Mint and elsewhere again with Jo, Xade, Rorschach, Jaye deKoan and sundry others. An unshaven Tript was vaguely encountered somewhere in the vicinity of the Victoria Markets at around 1am. About two people at least one of whom I did not previously know ended up on my foldout couch watching Reservoir Dogs.

- Recorded a cover of Always On My Mind with my associate Mishuki One for H419.

- Made an elaborate pictoral blog post about things I did this week.

- Watched entire series of John Safran vs God (purchased secondhand last Sunday for $5).

- Went to the gym five times.

- Wrote 36 emails to 15 people.

- Et cetera.

Bonnie & Clyde

This morning I cannot stop playing the cover of Serge Gainsbourg's Bonnie and Clyde by Boyd Rice and Giddle Partridge which is currently available as a stream from their joint MySpace page.

Go and listen to it! It's great.

The first bit is, anyway. Unfortunately it fades out after two minutes.

I wish they'd hurry up and finish their album. I will buy it if I have to.

Every Few Years JJJ Playlists Something I Like

I can't stop listening to this. (Info, original link here.)

Groan Box In The Meat Show

Here is a fellow who is not insane (although he is an idiot) who believes that Monsignor Manson is genuinely monstrously evil - a possibility with which I am very enamoured.

He proposes that Manson sought/seeks to aggressively & systematically demoralize his own audience, without them noticing, in order to create dependency. He suggests, for example, that MM's objective in drilling his listeners over and over and over again with the phrase:

We're disposable teens
We're disposable teens
We're disposable teens
We're disposable

was not the stated one of providing an empowering outlet for the sense of frustration and alienation experienced by many young people in contemporary society - but rather to, on a very direct and visceral level, remind and reinforce to teens that they are indeed disposable to him and worthless in general - keeping them down and in their place, and inspiring them to perversely greater heights of devotion at the same time.

I do not find this theory entirely implausible.

I Heard This Song On The Radio Today

About a young man who has a crush on worthless popular chanteuse and actress Hilary Duff.

"I've got a crush," the chorus declares, "on Hilary Duff", before going on to explain that Ms. Duff, in the estimation of the artiste, is possessed of "the right stuff" and other such desirable attributes.

It was the cheesiest piece of trash I ever heard. Apparently it's been around for a while. I'm glad I missed it.

Cometh The Punk Rock Librarian (Part One)

Things Ben bought whilst visiting Melbourne:

• Diskonto - "We Are The People Our Parents Warned Us About" LP ("Raging dis-core; possibly Swedish, maybe Japanese people singing in Swedish")
• The Curse of Shank - self-titled LP ("Scottish power-violence")
• Combat Wounded Veteran - "Duck Down For The Torso" 10" EP ("Awesome screaming artcore")
• Dead Silence - "Hell, How Could We Make Any More Money Than This?" 7" ("Colorado guys making fun of Bad Religion")
• Spazm 151 - self-titled LP ("Raging Texan hardcore")
• A-Ha - "Take On Me" 7" ("I can't believe I paid $5 for this")
• Blondie - "Parallel Lines" LP ("Did you know Hanging On The Telephone was a cover?") (NB I didn't.)
• Joe Satriani - "Surfing With The Alien" vinyl LP ("Fuck yeah!")
• Brian The Dog from Family Guy ("He might be based on Snoopy")
• Video of John Woo's Bullet In The Head ("John Woo! Fuck yeah!")

Lyric of the Day

"Stop The Violence" by Wesley Willis

Stop killing innocent people
Stop killing police officers
Stop shooting at policemen
Stop shooting bystanders with handguns

Stop the violence
Stop the violence
Stop the violence
Stop the violence

Stop shooting old ladies
Stop beating up FBI agents
Stop killing the postal workers
Stop shooting at cops
Keep your ass out of jail

Stop the violence
Stop the violence
Stop the violence
Stop the violence

Stop raping women for crying out loud
Stop killing little kids
Keep yourself out of prison
Stay the hell out of trouble

Stop the violence
Stop the violence
Stop the violence
Stop the violence

Rock over London
Rock on Chicago

Pioneer, it's the art of entertainment.

Just Call Me Huggy Bear

Coz I'm a motherfuckin' etc.

Look what my childhood best friend Ben did.

When not making webpages, he is also a trained librarian and plays in punk bands, which is an interesting combination. His current band is called Draft Dodger (old site, predating his joinage - new one coming soon, so I'm told), and their album may or may not be entitled, topically, 'Holy Shit, Batman'. And he's a thoroughly nice bloke.

I highly recommend him for all your website, librarianship, punk rock and nice bloke needs.

I have that accursed song in my head now. Damn.

Now I Will Tell You

A certain someone - who is not human either - has made me a mix CD. It is called, beautifully, "dogwHistlinG in the dArk" and it is too perfect. (Very naff in parts, but perfectly so.)

I have taught you well, he said, with characteristically insufferable arrogance, arching his fingers in a villainous fashion.

Thank you so much.

It's obviously been compiled with your correspondent in mind, but because it's very accomplished so great and because I'm so proud, I can't resist sharing.

Anyone who fancies a copy: don't ask why, just ask.

City of the Damned

Here (4MB mp3) is a cover version of a song by The Gothic Archies called "City of the Damned" which I recorded last year and have just now gotten around to mixing properly. Well... to mixing, anyway.

Dedicated to Li - despite anticipating that, as someone who's actually studied sound recording, his only reaction is likely to be one of abject horror.

Bleary-Eyed Ramblings, or I Dream Of Constance

I dreamt last night that I was a girl, specifically Constance. I've mused about being Constance before. I don't know why, other than that I think she's cool. And I've often fantasized about being a girl. I don't think I'm a repressed transsexual or anything. I just reckon it would be awesome. Girls are much nicer than boys. Or at least much more appealing.

Tangent: In my early teens I was completely obsessed with periods. I only found out mentruation existed when I was, like, twelve. This was possibly the origin of my interest in the occult. I was just astounded that this bizarre and horrendous phenomenon had been going on all around me all my life, completely sheilded from my view.

This unhealthy preoccupation was only entirely cured when, at the age of 22, I fulfilled my long term ambition of actually having sex with a menstruating woman, something I will never, ever do again.

I ran out of cigarettes last night. I thought not having any would motivate me to bounce out of bed bright and early this morning and go to the gym. But instead I just lingered in bed for a really, really long time. Then I went out in my pyjamas to buy some and came back home to drink coffee and blog. I'm a disgrace.

In other news, Jojo & Xade report excitably that Tori Amos is coming to town.

I saw her last time she toured 'Straya which was, I believe, in, like, 1994. Sort of tempted. (But upon glancing at the latest incarnation of her website: she really badly needs to fire her current stylist. Admittedly, though, so do I. Or at least I would, if I had one.) I haven't heard her current album, but I grew to love Scarlet's Walk, despite an iffy relationship between us at first.

I can't really afford it, though, especially since.. well, I'm so shat off about this actually I think a separate post may be in order.