I haven’t been to a Big Day Out since 2004 and with good reason, people are music festival’s are disgusting. This particular music festival just so happens to fall on Australia Day, the most offensive national public holiday on our calender. People feel compelled to cover themselves head to toe in Australiana paraphenalia in a proud display of nationalism and their committment to all things they consider to be distinctly Australian like the beach, beer, bbq’s and freedom. In otherwords the large fuckwit population of the country turn the flag into a cape and get completely shitfaced in the name of National Pride and the genius promoters of Big Day Out decided that this would be the perfect day to hold a music festival.
I digress.
Generally it’s my fear and distaste for big crowds that keep me away from most music festivals, but the line up this year was too good to miss and my love and dedication for Noel Gallagher was stronger than my hatred of crowds.
With the exception of the token dickheads (like the row of men pissing on a fence AT THE FRONT OF A STAGE, or the intelligent fellow who decided to fill up his water bottle from a fire hydrant), this year wasn’t too bad. The crowd was extremely comfortable at about 40,000 (in an 80,000 capacity venue…not good for the promoters) and there were virtually no lines for food, drinks or toilets plus there was breathing space. Rejoice!
The downside to this was that for some smaller bands like Kitty, Daisy & Lewis the crowd was scarce which was a real shame but did allow for some swing dancing action front of stage.
My highlights of the day were the Cage The Elephant with their energetic punk rock blues sound, Mariachi El Bronx - seriously fucking amazing and Kitty, Daisy & Lewis (who were strong despite the lack of crowd).
Then came Kanye, who a friend of mine has so accurately dubbed “the spinal tap of rap”, was typically 15-20 minutes late but rose from the centre of the crowd on a scissor lift amidst plumes of smoke, almost looking like the God he thinks he is and most definitley playing into the delusion of grandeur he clearly has.
Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoy Kanye’s music. His rhymes are great and his live show is BEYOND entertaining, it really defines epic. Luckily for me he played the two songs I wanted to hear most (monster and hell of a life) in the first half hour so I was able to run to see the person I was actually here to see - Noel Gallagher.
Truly deserving of the title “Godlike Genius” he came onstage bang on time and launched into a shorter version of Monday night’s set focussing mostly on the High Flying Birds tracks with a few oasis sing alongs thrown in. Much to his amusement there was underwear down the front of the stage. As expected there was some hilarious retorts to crowd requests and some great commentary thrown in. Noel Gallagher is without a doubt, one of the musical greats of our generation and I really hope to see him back on our shores again soon.
The rest of my photo’s from the day can be viewed at my flickr account
Noel Gallaghers High Flying Birds
For the rest of my photo’s visit my flickr account
Like all other fans I was suitably devastated upon hearing the news that Oasis had split late one night in 2009. I consoled myself with the thought that it will allow Noel to finally have a career as a solo artist. So when Liam was the first to emerge with his post-oasis creation “Beady Eye” one might say I was a little disappointed. Not that there’s anything wrong with “Different Gear, Still Speeding”, it’s a fun album, but it just lacks something.
It felt like Noel was never going to release his debut post-oasis masterpiece. Once he did, the wait was forgotten and I felt like that wide gaping hole in my musical psyche was getting quite a bit smaller with every listen. High Flying Birds is everything that made me love Oasis and more. From the first single “The Death of You and Me” I was hooked, I was even back into b-sides - The Good Rebel is the kind of track that could only miss out on being included on an album that was flawless, and High Flying Birds pretty much is. There’s not a single track on the album that I skip.
If the album is close to perfection, the live show that I saw last night goes beyond perfection. I couldn’t have asked for a better - opening with two oasis songs the night was an even mix of Oasis and High Flying Birds. Two of my favourite Oasis songs were played (Talk Tonight and Half the World Away) and Noel’s version of Wonderwall truly is something spectacular. Not once did I miss the presence of the younger Gallagher, his kooky (off and) on stage behaviour might be entertaining, but it certainly doesn’t match the musical prowess and witty banter of Noel. The audience was fantastic, it felt wonderful 2000+ people singing at the top of their lungs to new and old tracks and let’s face it, there’s NOTHING like yelling “GONNA TAKE THAT TIGER OUTSIDE FOR A RIDE” along with a packed Enmore Theatre.
If I were to rate this show it would get a 10/10 everything about it exceeded my expectations and reminded me exactly why I fell in love with Oasis all those years ago and why I stuck with them the whole way through - singing Don’t Look Back in Anger along with 2200 other people validated that.
ENMORE THEATRE - MONDAY 23RD JAN - SET LIST
- (It’s good) to be free
- Mucky Fingers
- Everybody’s on the Run
- Dream On
- If I had a gun…
- The Good Rebel
- The Death of You and Me
- Freaky Teeth (new song)
- Wonderwall
- Supersonic
- (I wanna live in a dream in my) Record Machine
- AKA…What a Life!
- Talk Tonight
- Soldier Boys and Jesus Freaks
- Broken Arrow
- Half the World Away
- (Stranded on) The Wrong Beach
- Little by Little
- The Importance of being idle
- Don’t Look Back in Anger
Haters gonna hate
Just like raper’s gonna rape and bakers gonna bake, there’s always going to be at least one person in life who simply does not like you through no fault of your own.
As an only child who was socialized as a kid, but didn’t go to pre-school I didn’t encounter someone who didn’t like me until year one. It was quite possibly the first traumatic event of my life. I had done nothing to this girl, in fact, until I was the only one in the entire class not invited to her birthday party, thought we were friends. Other kids were mean to her because she was the new girl, I was one of the first people to be nice to her. I included her in activities, I introduced her to everyone and I even shared my little lunch with her one day when she forgot hers. To say I was devastated when she told me she hated me was an understatement. I cried for two days straight. I simply couldn’t understand not only why someone didn’t like me, but why someone I went out of my way to make feel welcome could be so mean.
I was seven years old. I’m now twenty-seven and not much has changed. Except I don’t cry when I find out people don’t like me anymore.
I have a fairly even male to female friend ratio. However the majority of my problems are with other women and when they decide they don’t like me, they really don’t like me. It’s never as simple as a personality clash, they launch a full blown hate campaign. They do every possible thing they can think of to bring me down.
But you know what? People who invest so much time and energy hating someone live a miserable life. If you always need one person to hate and bitch about in order to feel better about yourself, then you must be a miserable person with deep self hatred. If you consider yourself my friend, yet you still try to make me feel like a worthless piece of shit, perhaps you should reconsider your friendship and count how many actual friends vs acquaintances you actually have. If you hardly know me, but spend a whole lot of time and energy hating me and making sure you know exactly what I’m doing at all times, get a hobby. Maybe exercise or something. Start a twelve step program. Paint watercolours.
I’m not sorry that I enjoy life. I’m not sorry that my main aim in life is to have fun no matter what it is I’m doing. I can adapt to the situation. If I’m at a party where I don’t know many people, I make friends, I don’t shadow the one person I know or sit in the corner and judge people while I pretend to be texting someone on my cell phone.
Im happy more than I am sad. I have my own sense of style and I really don’t care if you look me up and down as you judge what I’m wearing because it doesn’t fit your idea of the image everyone that surrounds you should portray. I am who I am and I don’t intend on changing that for anyone.
So if you hate me, that’s more a you problem than a me problem.
Jan 2012 Playlist
I’ve pretty much had the same playlist since November, with the exception of my stellar Elvis Roadtrip Playlist (which I will put up at some point). This morning I decided it was time for some new music and with SXSW coming up in just over a month I trawled the announced bands pages (in addition to myspace music & facebook friends recommendations) in an attempt to find new and shiny things. This is what I’ve come up with thus far
3 Dudes and a mullet
Alabama Shakes
Brothers Grim & The Blue Murders (one of my fav Aussie bands to see live)
Cooper McBean and the Vested Interests
Cuff the Duke
Dash Rip Rock
Futurebirds
Hellbound Glory
Lana Del Rey
Not in the Face
Slim Chance and the Can’t Hardly Playboys
Whiskey Daredevils
Whiskey Shivers
Parkes Elvis Festival 2012
After attending for the very first time this year I have decided that I never want to live a life that does not have the Parkes Elvis Festival in it.
Part One: Petersham to Parkes
The adventure started the moment we hit the road, like hyper-active children after red cordial our excitement could not be contained and within five minutes of driving we had begun a game of car karaoke which lasted the entire five hour drive.
The playlist was magnificent, largely made up of Elvis tracks it also included hits from Roy Orbison, Buddy Holly, Dolly Parton, Waylon Jennings, Elton John, The Rolling Stones, Hank Williams Snr (and Hank Williams III), Johnny Cash, Tom Jones, The Animals, Patsy Cline, Stray Cats and more.
Our first stop was The Hydro Majestic at Medlow Bath (now derelict and awaiting renovation), mostly to prove my point that it was in fact a hotel and not a dam as one of my travel companions believed. It was sad to see this beautiful hotel in such a state, having been one of my favorite places to visit as a kid and as an adult.
Our second stop was the mining town of Lithgow. Not much can really be said about this cancerous blight on the landscape except we scored lucky in the op shop finding Jerry Seinfeld and Lisa Lampanelli’s biographies and a fancy pair of shorts.
Now I did debate leaving out mentioning the next stop on our trip, but I am still completely outraged over the fact that a large gas station only had one size red bull and it wasn’t large. Shame on you truck stop just outside of Bathurst, shame on you!
Stop number four was brief but entertaining, it is best described in photo’s
Part Two: Party in Parkes
Finally, we arrived. Our excitement was un-contained and our behavior was un-restrained. We were under-privileged kids, Parkes was a toy store and we had just been told everything was free.
Once the business end of the night was completed it was time to get our Elvis on and what better place to start than the Parkes Leagues Club?
Upon entering the auditorium I was overcome with a special kind of happiness that I haven’t felt since I visited Memphis. The vibe was contagious, there was more inappropriate thrusting that anyone should ever have to see in one lifetime, let alone one night, but for some reason, it was okay.
The Elvis on stage was a magnificent specimen. He had the voice of The King but the head of Bruce Campbell in Bubba Hotep. His moves were spectacular and with every glance in my direction I felt as if a part of me had been violated and I liked it.
I glanced to the side of the stage and standing there alone, with glassy eyes and a stance that can only be described as a swoon was on stage Elvis’ biggest fan (his wife/missus). Can you imagine the conversations you would have with new people?
“Oh so what does your husband do?”
“Oh, he’s an Elvis impersonator - for three days a year in Country NSW he has women throwing themselves at him like he is The King”.
After the show ended we briefly stopped in at the Cambridge Hotel where we witnessed a bar fight between two Elvis’ that ended with the throwing of a bar stool.
Next we headed up the main drag, dancing and singing to the Elvis tunes pumping from the towns speaker system. We stumbled upon a magnificent bearded man statue. I climbed up and out of no where a swarm of Elvii had also joined me, I turned to my right and there was a bearded Elvis, not too dissimilar to to Charro Elvis. This was an extremely thrilling few moments.
We then moved on to what is now known as “the gropey pub” where all three of us (two girls, one boy) were molested in three separate incidents by three separate Elvii. We decided to leave this not so fine establishment and head up to karaoke.
Unfortunately this was short lived as we were asked to leave karaoke bar due to bringing in our drinks from the previous bar. Turns out the police followed us for three bars, just waiting for us to muck up. I think the universe decided it was time to go home and where was home you ask? Home was Hoe’s (pronounced Hoey’s) place.
That was the end of day one….
The things I’ve seen - The Seven Hills Mural Edition
This mural has been here longer than I’ve been alive. I just did a google search with every possible keyword combination I could think of in an attempt to shed some light on this truly bizarre mural but the only thing I could find was a listing in the national archives for a photo of the mural upon its completion in 1979.
I guess it has been around so long it has literally become part of the landscape and no one ever stops to have a look at what the mural actually depicts. I imagine it starts with something historical as there are Aboriginal Australians with spears (one on the ground with what looks like a bottle of booze) and some convicts either being attacked by or attacking the aboriginals. I’m not sensitive by any means but I am quite surprised no one has deemed this politically incorrect as yet, while it is a popular thoroughfare it is under a railway bridge and it isn’t often any one would be stopping to have a look.
As the mural moves across it gets quite bizarre, there are rabbits and pixies and a man with multiple arms with a rooster for a hand and a clock for a head…
If anyone can shed any light on this peculiar piece of western sydney landscape it would be much appreciated.
I made this series of collages for an event I worked on with a friend last year (much like the ones I did at the Jurassic Lounge Zine Workshops which can be seen here & here neither of which I kept as the spirit of the whole workshop was to work with recycled material then recycle the material again, I know very postmodern) to decorate the otherwise black hole that was the venue.
Unfortunately these have been sitting in the boot/trunk of my car for about 6 months and weren’t properly stored or protected from the elements that snuck in whenever the boot was open. It gives them an even dirtier look (if that’s even possible with the nature of these pieces). Either way I’m in the process of putting them up at home. I like them if I do say so myself.
The materials were sourced from reverse garbage and my own personal collection of clippings, true crime magazines, Weimar Berlin books and various other things I could get my grubby little paws on.
Late night ponderings
Having one of those nights where I can’t stop my thought train long enough to get to sleep. It’s been everywhere from my next lot of tattoo work, to guilt over not visiting new Orleans for two years to all the stuff I have to do at work as well as staying on top of my various side projects and making sure I book flights before they get too expensive for my next US trip in March.
Finally it settles on the inevitable, whatever fear is currently at the forefront of my mind. At the moment it’s rejection. I over analyse things, some rejections I take as a personal failure, others I secretly hoped would be rejected. However when it come to my personal life I’ve never really been rejected because A) I’ve never put myself out in a position to be rejected and humiliated and b) the rejections I have had haven’t been flat out rejections, more like thinly veiled excuses that insinuate I need to put in all the effort; for example the ever so popular “I’m seeing someone I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, but I really like you and I’m really confused and blah blah blah” don’t waste my time, be honest up front. I’ve unknowingly been the other woman enough times to know exactly what the limitations are on such an encounter, but don’t chase me for weeks on end, make me admit to liking you then tell me theres someone else, that’s just a waste of everyone’s time and it plays with everyone’s emotions. Be a player, sure, but be upfront about it that way you limit the amount of people who get hurt and the amount of effort I put in. Especially if I’m not going to get ANYTHING out of it, not even a platonic friendship.
The next excuse that irritates the hell out of me is the “I don’t want to be in a relationship, with anyone” line. No you don’t want to be in a relationship with me, you can admit that, you can tell me to my face that I’m not the kind of girl you’d take home to your mother, you wouldn’t be the first (honest, a guy i was dating told me that…because I had a glass of wine before 4pm ON A SATURDAY) or even just say “I’m seeing a few girls at the moment, I’m just having fun”. Be honest because chances are the girl isn’t after a relationship (especially not if the first time you shagged the morning after involved her doing a walk of shame home) in fact none of the relationships I’ve been in, have started off with the intention of being that.
The way I see it is if I like someone enough to want to hang out, I’m attracted to them enough to want to make out, chances are there’s going to be a bit of the old in and out.
What happens after that? Well sometimes the cycle is repeated a few times until we both realise we’re only after one of the three elements so maybe we’ll be friends and hang out or maybe we’ll do one of the other two at random intervals throughout our lives. Sometimes it’s a once off, maybe a few times then it just fades out. No harm no foul. Once every so often all three elements merge together, blend up and come out as something entirely different that resembles, I suppose what they call a “relationship” sometimes they last, sometimes they don’t. Heartsbreak, we move on and do it all again. Or become the crazy cat and bird lady either/or. I think the best attitude to take is not to view people as a possession and not to take everything as if it will be forever (or for the duration of life). With my track record you would think I’d hate men. I don’t, there’s no point in hate. Theyre not all bad. Sure I’m guarded, emotionally retarded and pretty hesitant with my trust but that doesn’t mean I’m going to in a nunnery (that and I’m an atheist, no actually im a pastafarian).
I’m not entirely sure what the point of this is, but i have seen so many of my friends force someone else into a relationship. For what reason I don’t know. Maybe because that’s what society says we should do, find one person and mate for life with no variation. I have no doubt that some people are meant to be together, some of my friends have doubtedly found their soul mates but none of them forced it, it all happened naturally.
I think maybe when you find a person you want to put in an effort for, who willingly reciprocates and instigates, that might be a sign of something meaningful.
I’d rather be forever alone than in a never ending series of miserable relationship that’s for sure.
