15. Despite family and friends commenting on the predictability of me falling in love with the first American I met, it was still absolutely staggering to me that someone this exciting and exotic should like me. Even the teachers at school seemed excited for us. In retrospect we must have been astonishingly nauseating to be around, which is presumably why people left us alone, but then that's just what teenagers in love want anyway. Our 'relationship' lasted 6 months before she moved back to Kansas. The weekly, then monthly, letter writing continued for several years. I still find her patience at a bunch of Tasmanians ceaselessly referring to the Wizard of Oz remarkable.

16. By the time grunge hit in early 1993 I had, by a total stoke of luck, been growing my hair for 3 years and playing guitar for 4, so I was instantaneously regarded as being somewhat cool. Though I never really liked Nirvana, Pearl Jam or anyone from what the media called the grunge 'scene', I adored Sonic Youth who I thought were far cooler, smarter and more authentic than these angry and hurt floppy-haired people I looked a bit like. But even my love for them paled in comparison to my love for local bands and the thrill of being able to jump onto the coattails of bands making 'noise' and reinventing my very limited idea of what a band and a song could be. UFO, Buzzbars, Crunchy, Sea Scouts, Your Arse; every week a new band who wanted to be a band more than wanted to learn how to play properly. As it should be.

17. In the role of roadie and masseur I toured with Sea Scouts as they supported Pavement at The Forum in Melbourne and the Metro in Sydney. An amazing trip. Besides regaling poor Steven Malkmus with my '50 American states in 30 seconds' trick and suggesting he should make it into a song (Why act like that Andy? WHY?) it was an unimaginable thrill to see my equal favourite band in the world up close, eat their rider and run around backstage at The Forum around statues and dusty passageways.

18. As soon as I could, I left Tasmania. Within days I was in the highlands of Guatemala and totally, totally out of my depth. What seemed like a cool thing to say at a party in Hobart ("I'm going to Guatemala! No really I am! I don't know ANY Spanish, I don't know ANYONE!") was actually terrifying in reality. I learned basic Spanish quickly, tagged along with Swedes, Germans and anyone who'd have me and in a week I was happy making my itinerary up on my own. An experience I'd highly recommend to anyone who wants self-confidence fast. A psychological bungee jump.

19. Months after that (after a brilliant two weeks with Jennifer in Kansas and Indiana) I was working at a seal sanctuary in the Shetland Islands, a similarly life-altering experience. Seeing baby seals bond with dogs and cats before discovering their true nature in water was endearingly fascinating, as was finding out that I was living with an actual punk rocker Pete Bevington, who played bass in The Users, used to run pirate radio stations in London and had the record collection to prove it. As cool as that was, playing soccer with teenagers, working early mornings in a fish factory and exploring shamanism took up more time. Pete gave me his entire reggae 7 inch collection a year later. It's still one of the greatest treasures I possess and the reason I got seriously into DJing for several years.

20. While working in Edinburgh, where I lived for 4 years, I met lots and lots of awesome people and saw lots of fantastic bands. Within a few days of finding a place and getting a job I went to a record store to put up a notice about starting a band. Before I could post a flier I saw one asking for band-members listing 10 of the same 12 favourite artists I included. The man behind the flier, Matthew Cheney and I formed Arctic Circle (who, like every band who continue after I leave get way better) and, with some other friends, started a cafe/venue/artspace called The Forest (which also improved markedly after I left).

21. While there I managed to get a role as an extra in a few feature films. This is something I got infatuated with for a while, just being on the outskirts of a feature film is an alternately boring and fascinating experience. Thankfully the film in which I appear auditioning for a porn film wearing only a pair of white underpants before flirting shamelessly with Jean-Philippe Écoffey while he plays with my tongue piercing is unlikely to ever gain DVD release and the two films where I'm credited as 'dancer in club' are actually quite good.

22. Iceland is an amazing place and totally worth the exorbitant price of everything there, but you have to be adventurous. Eat the rotten shark, visit the penis museum, talk to strangers, look into active volcanoes, go swimming naked and alone in thermal springs when it's 5 degrees, drink Brennivin, accept lifts from strangers, pay $200 for a 6 hour bus ride between towns. It's man vs nature and you're the star.

23. Ever since having my heart broken in 2005 I started crying in movies though never at sad bits, only ever from joy. I can't really explain it. At medal ceremonies, and especially when something really excellent and unexpected happens to children, like the end of the movie Hairspray (2007). Most recently this happened while watching footage of Anna Paquin accepting her Academy Award for The Piano (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXpr_VUhang) and at the trailer for the forthcoming Where The Wild Things Are film. Can't work out what it all means.

24. Things I have been obsessed with and still am to a various degree include Bjork, Twin Peaks, Press Gang, the Pet Shop Boys and Harry Potter. Obsessions tend to be shorter the older I get though that Harry Potter one was really drawn out. Often I'll wear a fairly obscure badge or T-shirt in an effort to draw fellow-obsessors into conversation. So far my Press Gang-theme-song ringtone on my mobile hasn't worked, nor has my Twin Peaks 'This must be where pies go when they die' t-shirt but I made several pals from my wearing Bjork t-shirts and from looking a lot like one of my heroes, Tom Verlaine (see below). I used this as my Facebook profile picture for a few months. No one noticed it wasn't me.

25. I have still never tried marijuana, seen The Matrix or The Empire Strikes Back, listened to an album by The Who in it's entirety, used Twitter, read a book by Zadie Frost or Dan Brown or been to Paris, but then only a third of my life is behind me.

11. Two days after turning 21 I took over managing a bushwalking and camping store. I was far more interested with what CDs we'd play and which friends I could hire than actually selling stuff, but it was nice having a job that actually paid when hardly anyone I knew did. I ran it till I left for the UK in 1998.

12. Hobart music scene circa 1997 was the best and most exciting and most individual group of people you could hope to find yourself amidst as a musician who valued personality over musicianship. It's telling how many people are in 'successful' Australian bands who came from that era and eternal thanks are owed to everyone who contributed anything. Pure messy genreless-but-actually-kind-of-new-wave magic. Before 'youth oriented national radio' came in, before the internet linked little scenes with bigger ones. The bands that breed there now still have that rained-on isolated feel.

13. I am still absolutely and shamelessly in love with Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. I think it's absolute genius. The campaign I'm currently running is such a thrill because it links in with the adventures my teenage self and friends would run for hours and hours at a time, broken up with vigorous bouts of sparring, soccer, wrestling and pizza. It never seemed nerdy at all.

14. I have the worst memory of anyone I know for names and faces. Stories and events, I recall just fine, but growing up with the same 30 friends and the rarity of anyone new coming to school or moving into Fern Tree and knowing everyone's family means that I just don't remember who people are sometimes. There are so many people in the Melbourne music scene and I feel just awful forgetting friends of friends' names.

15. Aged 16 I met Jennifer, an incredibly pretty temporary student from the United States. 'AT LAST!' I thought, 'I knew knowing the American state capitals would come in handy one day.'
After waiting for a week or so for us to be somewhere crowded and noisy, should I need to shyly beat a hasty retreat, I approached her.
'Hello. I'm Andrew. Where are you from in America?' I asked nervously.
'Kansas,' she politely answered in an accent that made me slightly dizzy and feel like I was on TV.
'The capital of Kansas is Topeka.' I mumbled.
'That's right!' she smiled. 'That's my hometown.'
'Population 128 000,' I added, heart in mouth. 'It's the city in America with the closest population to that of Hobart's.'
She grinned.
From that point we were inseparable.

It feels like I'm starting Live Journal all over again, despite some friendly people still being on here from years ago (hello kineticfactory, bethiacathrain, malo23, hazeyjayne and mysterbey!) I thought I'd post this list of factoids about my life. It seems somehow more meaningful here than in Facebook. Feel free to ignore it completely.

1. As a young child I would encourage my male friends to wear dresses and choreograph dance routines to what is, in retrospect, by far the worst ABBA album but was, until the age of 6, my favourite record: 'Super Trouper'. I only say this now so as to disarm my mother who gets uncommon pleasure from telling this story to friends.

2. My first crush, aged 3, was on my neighbour Olivia Dombrovskis. Even then she had this grace about her other kids in the sandpit just didn't have. She had such an exotic name. The sand wouldn't hide in the cuffs of her jeans and get in her eyes when we did somersaults, her nose was never running and she didn't cry or have an annoying cutesie voice like some of the other girls. In fact, I don't think I heard her speak at all. She just lived in the big tudor house you reached by taking a long, winding path through the trees that looked like it was from an Enid Blyton book and was a total enigma.

3. I'm still searching for the first girl who ever kissed me. Leonie Eaton. I may, in fact, have invented her along with several talk show hosts who were fascinated by me and everything I thought at the time.

4. I 'studied' the violin until I was 5. No one in my family is musical but the soundtrack of my childhood is made up of trips to the orchestra instigated by my father in a desperate effort to counter the cultural disenfranchisement brought on by raising a child in Hobart, cassettes of 'Tapestry' by Carole King and 'The Best of Rod Stewert' played by my mother, the TV show Countdown and inane pop songs written by myself over a primitive form of beatboxing that only I could hear.

5. I would regale my unfortunate sister with these songs which had song titles like 'Do You Wear Your Ugg Boots In Bed?', 'There's A Car in The Way' and 'Big Leather Jacket'. Much of these songs were nonsensical because I didn't understand a lot of lyrics in pop songs, they just seemed to be syllables that rhymed so I thought it was OK to passionately sing lyrics like 'Apple-y basket so sure entalls' because it rhymed with 'Saturday market people and stalls" and was sure I'd be the first 12-year old to ever write and produce their own number one hit.

6. By 11 I had developed a fixation with the USA, one that exhausted my father's patience within weeks but which carried on for years; "why not France?" he would urge. Because the world was such a dazzlingly huge place - especially from Hobart - and geography allowed it to be compartmentalised, I became obsessed with how a country could divide itself into 50 states and how the then influential World Book Encyclopedia would lavish attention on the state slogans, state bird and state tree.
Soon enough I'd memorised the states, their capitals, in order of population and size. In retrospect my friends handled this surprisingly well. "Want to play soccer?" "No, I'm going to the library to read about Utah."

7. Being informed early on that there were really no jobs for anyone who knows the words to late-period ABBA songs or can recite the 50 American states in alphabetical order in under 30 seconds I decided I wanted to have any job that would let me catch planes. I'd be a travel agent. At three points in my life I have tried to become a travel agent convinced that my passion for traveling, the thrill of airports and exploring other cultures would convince those sitting opposite me to go to the Outer Hebrides instead of Ibiza, but been turned down each time because of my inability to 'sell'.

8. Aged 6, along with hundreds of other children, I lined up along the front of Parliament House in Hobart see the Queen. For some reason she zeroed in on me, asked me my name and which school I went to 'Fern Tree Kindergarten' I replied 'That's nice' she said and moved on. I'd like to say I left off 'Your majesty' in some literally infantile anti-monarchical statement, but I was just nervous.

9. The first band I formed, Diamond Dust, with Kelly Pettit, Alex Tassell, Joel Stibbard and Tracey Fisher was awesome. Morphing into Society's Outcasts one of the greatest moments of my life is, along with Joel Stibbard, Tracey Fisher and Kristy Anderson, winning the 1991 Taroona High Battle Of The Bands. The ensuing minor-level stardom and respite from low self-esteem that having grade 7's chanting your name as you walk down the school corridor can give is no small thing at 14. Still now I measure songs by 'would that have sounded good being played to the school at the Battle?'

10. I grew up in the best place I have ever seen for raising children. Fern Tree. It's so good it doesn't even exist anymore. A dozen or so families, all first-generation English, all with kids around the same age going to school together, having summer holidays together, forming the Fern Tree Gang and generally being adventurous and given free reign over the side of a forested mountain is one of the coolest and rarest gifts possible. I still adore the memories of growing up there, as, I think does everyone else who I grew up with. Plus, despite no one being a hippy, on election day the Fern Tree Kindergarten polling booth polls the highest Green vote of any polling booth in the country. Or at least it used to. It's quite different now.

With one exam over and the next one a week away I can allow myself a little time to post, though few people I was sharing LJ with in my heyday of it's use (06-07) are still here it seems. I wonder how many people have been lured away by Facebook.
One thing that brought me back here was research for a thesis topic I was considering which was naturopathic approaches to anorexia and/or bulimia.
It turns out the largest live journal community is a pro-anorexia site which you have to be vetted to join. I am pretty interested with the development and maintenance of eating disorders though never having suffered from one myself I had to stretch truths a little when joining it. I first heard about pro-anorexia from (where else?) a BBC Radio 4 documentary deploring the existence of such sites; they offer tips on evading mealtimes, celebrate the figures of Nicole Richie and Mischa Barton and actually encourage people to be dangerously unhealthy.
Since being accepted to pro-anorexia on the pretext of finding out what it is that is underlying these conditions and how best to communicate and help people I found a huge community of hurt, sad, ill people helping each other and the only help they were wanting was post-binge support and reassurance that 40kgs isn't fat for a 20 year old. I posted a few helpful things that were likely ignored and tried to be cheery but every minute or two there is another updated post from someone sad about life, angry with themselves or mentioning how much exercise they did today.

Shortly after joining my thesis supervisor said the topic was too broad, too psychological (not naturopathic enough) and there was too little research about the topic. Instead I'm doing the far more researched and slightly less exciting Role of Echinacea purpurea in the prevention and treatment of upper respiratory tract infections. I'm a third of the way through my thesis now, due September.

I still visit the pro-anorexia site sometimes, but it's so saddening, all this wasted energy and youth. It's a rare case where naturopathy can't really do a lot it seems. We can prescribe zinc to improve appetite, give calorie-free bitter drop-dose herbs for the same purpose and of course help with counseling but thee people don't want to be healthy. The body's idea of homeostasis is gone, vitality is too low. I'm surprised how many people I know either have or have had eating disorders. Similar themes seem to be at the cause and maintenance of them and there is very little a friend can do it seems.

Didn't really mean this post to be about this. Here's my Live Journal Dungeon:

It’s a thing of eternal wonder and beauty. It’s timeless and it’s a real shame that she’s no longer singing. I wonder if it’s possible to find where she is and ask her if she’d like to contribute her gorgeous vocals to a song I could write. Imagine writing for her voice or hearing words you’d written sung in her warm tones…
The Sundays, the band in which she sung and rendered a high point in the history of indie-pop, seem to still have a strong online following. Every so often I have to sneak off into a reverie of Sundays’ listening and swooning, especially when exams are about.


I was also reading back over older posts and realising how many people have fallen away from Live Journal, as did I for a year or more. I love the idea of reading over these entries when I’m older, should they be here. That’s the strange thing. Realising that you don’t really own anything on the internet at all. All these thoughts and outpourings are into a tiny little void that I’ve named. Kind of reminds me of the song below, one of the finest examples of Harriet Wheeler:




Now, back to school...

For some reason the current crisis in Iran (beautifully and harrowingly recounted in this article by Robert Fisk - http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-irans-day-of-destiny-1706010.html) is really affecting me. The twitters coming through from the Iranian students (http://search.twitter.com/search?q=iranelection) I find exciting, scary and moving in equal parts. I also wonder how they will seem reading back on this in years to come.

Perhaps it is the nature of the way this event is being reported - the government banning international media, closing down Facebook and preventing official information from exiting or entering the country, maybe it's because it's a largely youthful rebellion actually in action. I feel like most of the educated middle class knows at least a little about Iran whether it's from the Iran-Iraq war, the 1979 uprising or just from watching Persepolis, but there is a vested interest in seeing change here and I'm expecting things to get ugly and some form of democratic change to ensue. The world is watching and has an insight we've never had before. Weird to think that it's partly down to Twitter, a website I'd never previously visited.

My housemate's boyfriend is a journalist for SBS and he was trying to get to Iran last week, to cover the election. He's seething now, but I think he'll go later in the year. I would love to visit as well and help in a health-setting. When I think of a 32 year old semi-educated creative person in Tehran, my problems and personal aspirations seem to be so small.

I've fallen back in love with the writing of Tove Jansson. I read the Exploits of Moominpappa last week and am constantly awestruck by her economy of words, bizarre imagination and the almost Zen worldview of her creatures. I was also excited to find that several FinnAir planes that fly between Helsinki and Tokyo have large Moomins painted on them:

Let's bring you up to speed then Live Journal. Much has been happening since last I posted properly. I'll lay aside the pressing pharmacology assignment for the time being and try and bring some sense of the now to this most overlooked of blogs.
At present life comprises of:

a)school
b)houselife
c)music
and d)contemplating the next year.

In typical andy_yayus style I'll write about them all at the same time and often in the same sentence. It still seems scarcely believable that in 6 months I'll have a degree. When I look back over last years' stress-filled posts about not being made for it and getting terrible marks (which have gone back to their usual slightly higher levels of late) I can only reflect that I just stopped agonising about what's right and 'me' and just did it because it had to be done. As Van Morrison once eloquently stated 'It's too late to stop now...woaaaahhhhhowwwehohhh'.

I spend far too much time on d). I am planning not to practice naturopathy but rather endeavor to work in aid organisations with other health professionals, as a naturopath, designing, implementing and working at health programs. Here will be a good place to refine my ideas, which I'll need to do before I apply to Melbourne University to study an Advanced Diploma in Medical Anthropology (if I don't dive straight into a Masters in Public Health).

It seems to me is that social workers and doctors do amazing work in developing countries, plus they get to have these fulfilling jobs which allow them to better peoples lives, expand their professional experience, experience cultures and countries, constantly update and modify their skills and constantly improve what they're able to do. As a naturopath we're taught a strong science background and a holistic way of addressing health and seeing people as part of a culture, family and society. By integrating their knowledge and ours then we don't wind up with their reliance on external aid and poor-quality medicines. I realise that this is already happening in some parts of the world and that this makes economic sense for a lot of the agencies, it just strikes me that naturopaths are trained perfectly to be able to fit into an allied health team and with our diagnostic skills we could be great at quickly and effectively working in these situations. We learn a lot of nutrition and dietetics which could be incredibly usefully used if given the chance. To my knowledge (and I did research this a lot in 2007) no naturopaths have ever worked as naturopaths or nutritionists in aid organisations before.
I'm hoping to do volunteer work for Red Cross in Central or South America next year, hopefully in a health practitioner mode. Let's see what happens.


I'm still living in Westgarth, by the train station and it's still fantastic. A dear housemate moved out yesterday and we're needing another to move in before middle of July, always an exciting prospect. I've even got a great girlfriend and have done for over a year now. She's very smart and funny and very headstrong. Doesn't like most things I like musically but we do have an excellent sporadic graveyard shift on RRR playing music we both like.

I've been writing more music than I have for a while with a band that plays my songs, a band who AREN'T called The Blanqs, The Caziques, Secret Colours, Our Secret or Physics - my suggestions that didn't make it past the suggestion stage. it's ace working with friends and it's really great playing and writing on guitar again. I've also taken up drumming with one of my favourite bands from the 1990s, The Paradise Motel. That has been a strangely wonderful experience, though listening back to recordings I find my drumming excruciatingly bad. I have a very nice drum kit and soon I'll have time to practice more and get lessons, but I'm woefully out of practice and these incredible songs that I've been invited to play and co-write deserve far better than I can muster at the moment.

I have four exams, the last of which is on July 1st and finishes 2 hours before my flight to Sydney to start touring with The Bedroom Philosopher which is always an exciting prospect. Justin's comedy show went really well and the rehearsals have been sounding great.


Records I have been listening to lately include:

1. The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - S/T
My favourite album of the year so far, brilliant guitar pop.

2. The Crayon Fields - All The Pleasure Of The World
Not released until August now apparently but it's a stunning mix of featherweight harmonies and glistening instrumentation

3. James Blackshaw - The Glass Bead Game
While not quite scaling the heights of The Cloud Of Unknowing it's a sublime mix of piano, guitar, unearthly vocals and far more compositional than song-like. Magic.

4. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
Fascinatingly complex yet very listenable album from what will probably turn out to be most publications' album of the year despite being released in it's first week.

5. Aleks And The Ramps - Midnight Believer
So far my pick for band of the year. They've come so far in the last 12 months and this album is a cracker. Schizophrenic experimental pop of a slightly Of Montreal-variety but without the complex-for-the-sake-of-being-complex pretentiousness. Brilliant live too.

But I'm back in (at least temporary) love with Live Journal now. So nice to come back to it and see friends still here and posts still popping up.
So much school work on at the moment which I must get back to. 500 words about the anatomy of the paranasal sinuses. easy peasy.
Will be back here soon...

Belatedly, here is my poll-like wrap up for 2008

TOP 10 ALBUMS
1. Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust SIGUR ROS
2. Sea Lion THE RUBY SUNS
3. Dear Science, TV ON THE RADIO
4. Microcastle DEERHUNTER
5. In Ghost Colours CUT COPY
6. Animal Kingdom BASEBALL
7. Saint Dymphna GANG GANG DANCE
8. We Are Beautiful We Are Doomed LOS CAMPESINOS!
9. Saturdays = Youth M83
10. 808s And Heartbreak KANYE WEST

TOP 5 SINGLES
1. Gobbledigook SIGUR ROS
2. Time To Pretend MGMT
3. Golden Age TV ON THE RADIO
4. Sift The Noise SKIPPING GIRL VINEGAR
5. Lonely Planet SUMMER CATS

TOP 5 ARTISTS OF THE YEAR
1. The Ruby Suns
2. Cut Copy
3. Skipping Girl Vinegar
4. Los Campesinos!
5. Fleet Foxes

TOP 5 INTERNATIONAL ARTIST GIGS
1. Björk SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE
2. The Go! Team HI-FI BAR
3. Arcade Fire BIG DAY OUT
4. Patti Smith HAMER HALL
5. Rachel Unthank and the Winterset TOFF IN TOWN

TOP 5 AUSTRALIAN ARTIST GIGS
1. Summer Cats, The Harpoons, Monnone Alone PUBLIC BAR
2. Guy Blackman, Laura Jean, Always TOFF IN TOWN
3. Cut Copy FORUM THEATRE
4. Skipping Girl Vinegar, Ollie Brown, Georgia Fields THE CORNER
5. Kes Band, Baseball, Actor/Model, Love Is Science Fiction THE EVELYN

TOP 5 RADIO SHOWS
1. Film Reviews with Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo BBC RADIO FIVE
2. Transference RRR
3. Bluejuice PBS
4. Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me NPR
5. From Our Own Correspondent BBC RADIO FOUR

TOP 5 TV SHOWS
1. Flight of the Conchords TEN
2. At The Movies ABC1
3. Spicks and Specks ABC1
4. Enough Rope ABC1
5. Newstopia SBS

TOP 5 MOVIES
1. El Orfanato (The Orphanage)
2. The Dark Knight
3. No Country For Old Men
4. Juno
5. Encounters at the End of the World

TOP 5 ONLINE DESTINATIONS
1. last.fm
2. messandnoise.com
3. wikipedia.com
4. metlinkmelbourne.com.au
5. Press Gang Fans Forum: z8.invisionfree.com/pressgangfans

THE EMPEROR'S NEW CLOTHES AWARD
The Panics. Erroneous name. Erroneous prospect.

HIGHLIGHT(S) OF THE YEAR
The quality of albums and gigs was great, but nothing touches Obama’s victory.

QUOTE OF THE YEAR
“Yes we can” - Barack Obama and millions of excited Americans 05/11/08

BEST MEDIA MOMENT
CNN calling Ohio for Obama and giving him the election.

WHAT’S THE MOST RIDICULOUS THING SOMEONE WILL BLAME ON THE ECONOMIC DOWNTURN DURING 2009?
The return of grunge; the music that accompanied the last recession need not be resurrected for this one.

PREDICTION FOR 2009
Julian Nation will release an album, The Whales will play a gig (this year for sure!), Summer Cats’ new record will make me jump through my floor and The Harpoons will conquer all.

2008 IN REVIEW
New venues sprouted like mushrooms after rain, Mistletone showed everyone how to plough your own furrow and succeed against the advice of the established, brilliant bands abounded and electroclash was the defining genre. November’s summer festival announcements were only underwhelming because of last summer’s astonishing array of gigs and most of the year’s live highlights came in January. The cleaning up after the eight-year frat party of Bush’s term that began in the last months couldn’t overshadow the overwhelming optimism and hope that came with the US election victory, making it feel like miracles were possible and conspiracy theories were just conspiracy theories. Economic collapse, global warming, terrorist attacks, crowds of Americans weeping for joy, Chinese Democracy, Vampire Weekend, The Dark Knight, Andre Rieu, the Large Hadron Collider…it was quite a year.

1. ASTRAL WEEKS Van Morrison
2. BLOOD ON THE TRACKS Bob Dylan
3. LOVELESS My Bloody Valentine
4. VESPERTINE Bjork
5. MARQUEE MOON Television
6. SLANTED AND ENCHANTED Pavement
7. PET SOUNDS The Beach Boys
8. DIRTY Sonic Youth
9. ENTERTAINMENT Gang of Four
10.HOUNDS OF LOVE Kate Bush

I had a great few days in Hobart visiting my mother and sister and nephew. I even drove a lot which was fantastic. Much easier than Melbourne; far fewer cars, far more curves and much prettier views. Didn't catch up with enough people but it was great to catch a gig and climb Mt Wellington to it's thick blanket of snow. One of the most fun times I've had in Hobart.

I got my results back and I passed everything which relieved me immensely. I was so sure, walking to school on Tuesday morning to get my results, that I'd have to resit at least one exam. I did this last semester too, get so nervous about them and talk myself into thinking I'll do terribly. Anyway, straight back into it.

I booked some films for this year's film festival on Saturday. Nothing phenomenally exciting, but some interesting choices. Guy Maddin's 'My Winnipeg' looks really good, so does Werner Herzog's 'Encounters At The End of the World' where he goes to Antarctica and interviews people about why they choose to live there.

I'm also growing a beard for some bizarre reason. I've always loathed facial hair, so few people look better for it. But for some reason I just stopped shaving last week, am enduring the painful involuntary yanking of hairs whenever I hold my mobile phone to my ear and catching on shirt collars for...I don't know what. Curiosity? I guess I like to experience most things and I haven't done this before. I do like the way the hair so vividly grows in different directions, and how it's a lot more reddish gold than my hair. I'll look forward to shaving it off soon too.

Have become a manager of sorts to The Bedroom Philosopher. The new album is done and no we're pressing up copies and soon will be sending them out and shopping around the BP 'package'. His profile, new album, new single, personality, font, videos, identifiable fashion choices and generally well-respected reputation are all up for grabs and so far interest has been 100%. Very excited to see what will happen over the next few months as we chase the Flight Of The Conchords-buzz and attempt to remind people that The Bedroom Philosopher has been doing 'folkomedy' longer than those (hilarious and smart) guys have been around. Results will be posted here...

I thought I should write about this because your first ever bad interview or difficult subject is an important step in being a proper journalist and this was a strange one.

Like most people, I think The Pixies are totally amazing. The music simple and perfect balance between sweet and noisy, immensely influential blah blah blah and Kim Deal has always been my favourite, I love the Amps and The Breeders, her bassline were completely brilliant and so inspirational, so when I found out I was interviewing her for the Street Press, I was over the moon.

Interview was to be at 9AM Friday morning, I was up early questions at the ready and soon enough Kim was on the line. I had 20 minutes.

The first 7 minutes were great, she was really chatty and warm, telling me about the tour, about playing in Boston, about the gig they had that night in Asheville North Carolina, about how she was glad to be coming back to Melbourne. I thought it was all going great. Then I asked her if she knew about the rally Barack Obama had had nearby recently, with Arcade Fire playing at it. She was quiet and said she hadn't heard about it and sounded a little unbelieving. I asked if she had any political affiliations and she was silent again and said pass. There was another silence so I asked if she had any memories of playing in Melbourne since she played here about a year ago with The Pixies and after another awkward silence she suddenly said very seriously "You...you...you..so insist on wanting to get something down that you're not being conversational. At all." then interrupted my apology to say "go go go go go" and proceeded to repeat my questions back to me robotically and give one word answers or say nothing at all for the rest of the interview. I just died.

My editor Tom said that it was that attitude that saw Frank leave The Pixies and that it wasn't my fault. I WAS talking pretty fast and I did feel a little more nervous than usual which may have made it sound like I was being 'not very conversational' but really I couldn't work out how she got so pissed off with me.
Anyway, my other interviews have all be great. The Skybombers were hilarious, Barry from The Fratellis was super and reviewing a Michael Buble concert was actually really good fun.
Anyway, back to the books...

So I've decided that how I was feeling in the last post was very much as transitional as I hoped it would be. I'm three exams in to the five I have to do and they've been going really well - thank you to my pals who wrote and texted and suggested.
I've spent all my days studying (when I'm not here) and it felt so good coming out of the exams knowing I'd done well. The toughest one is on this coming Tuesday and I'm feeling a bit scared about it; Clinical Nutrition. The teacher is incredibly tough marker and it's a third year subject (some I'm studying are fourth year subjects) which means I HAVE to pass it to continue, I can't re-do it next year without spending a whole 'nother year at school, something I certainly do not want to do.

I have written a little note at the front of my workbook. "Finish it." then below "..and then study journalism!" which makes me smile. I would dearly love to do that. We'll see. Anyway, I just thought I should balance out the sentiment expressed in the previous entry.

After my herbal medicine exam on Tuesday night I raced to the Northcote Uniting Church Hall to see Kimya Dawson (ex-Moldy Peaches and creator of most of the soundtrack to the ace film Juno) play. I wasn't reviewing, just watching because I adore her and love how natural she is. We met in 2001, in Edinburgh, after a Moldy Peaches concert, and emailed a little afterward, but she didn't remember me and I wasn't surprised. It was a top night, though the church floor was hard. She was really funny and her songs are such an expression of where she is at in her life, so at the moment they were mainly about her 3 year old daughter Panda and her friends. She got the audience to hold hands in a circle then wrapped us up by rolling herself around the line forming a big hugging ball which was fun.

I'm really looking forward to being in Hobart again, I'm heading down July 3rd for a few days. Hopefully it will be snowing and the crisp air will smart my lungs and I'll get buffeted by strong winds walking up Mount Wellington and I can leave this little room of mine and it's compact piles of mess for swaying tall trees and cold rain - the nearest I can get to being in Scotland again too. Glorious!

Here to think.
here to think and write and decided that here was a good place to do it.
It's later that I think I'll be interested to work out why I decided to do what I did, well...what I'm contemplating doing.
This is unlikely to be of interest to anyone so I don't expect you to make it past here.

I'm quitting school. I've got 18 months to go to achieve my Bachelor of Health Science (Naturopathy).
I love my course, but my marks have been going down the more I write my journalistic articles and the more I spend time with my girlfriend. It's a shame, I do like my school and what I learn is of inestimable value, but I'm just...well not that good, never was scientifically minded, and I expect that I'll be a middling naturopath if I ever am one. No one in my family has finished a degree and I really REALLY want to have that as at least a milestone, like how I got my drivers license a few months ago. I really need to feel like I'm older and this is a good way of doing it. One of the best. I might even be able to land a job with it, who knows.

I don't really know anyone at my school anymore, I've taken so much time off to play music and work and carry on like I do in this cultural ant hill that I usually come and go without speaking to anyone, and I KNOW that if I did have a chum some of the very obvious mistakes I made (referencing, forgetting to check essay formatting), the reasons I lost marks on my recent assignments, wouldn't have happened. I need a study friend but my course seems full of matronly nurses, occasional older guys and the chatty ones I do know aren't doing as well as me. And I'm doing TERRIBLY. Out of the three assignments I've had marked I've had a 48%, 49% and a 55%. It's unheard of for me to be this distracted, this scatty, have this much trouble concentrating, which is what it is. I couldn't remember what assignments were which when I was waiting to get them back, I spent so little actual effort on them. Someone like that shouldn't be a naturopath. I wouldn't want to see me.

I would want to read me though. Most of my comments that came back were along the lines of "a very thoughtfully written assignment Andrew, unfortunately you didn't address some of the key criteria" most everyone comments on how I write readably (which is a pretty rare thing in the scientific world it would seem) but that I can't get it together to do proper Harvard referencing or explain the finer points of the randomised clinical trials I reference. Most of the time I'm struggling with the word limit and juggling two articles that need to be sent in by midday Monday. I know I can do this now. I can. I have a week before my first exam. I can make it through these last weeks.

But I was made to make music. I know that too. That's been my motivation for life, that's been what I know myself best for. I'm having a big think about all this now. Music and anthropology, that's what I love. I have always found that my greatest contribution to the world so far (besides making a couple of women fertile through recommending they take a liquid extract of Vitex agnus castus) is to ponder the theory that a cultures music depends on the humidity of their geographic location. Rhythms in the tropics, melodies in the polar regions. That's what I'll leave this post pondering. How to make THAT the first step.

I went to Perth for 6 days last week. It was exciting. Well, Perth was pretty dull as a place, but our activities there were fun fun fun. Firstly, the plane trip over gave us Michael Clayton which I'd been wanting to see for ages. Despite the tiny screen it showed on it was clearly a fine effort of film-making. Hugh and Justin (the other members of The Bedroom Philosopher And His Awkwardstra, the band I play in who had been invited over to play the Perth International Arts Festival) were as excited as me and joking about 5-star hotels and chauffeurs on the plane. That these dreams were shortly to be realised was almost like walking into someone else's life. Kat, our tour manager (I KNOW! A real live tour manager....for US!) was super friendly and gave us lots of points of interest on the way in, dropped us off at our hotel and came back a few hours later to drive us to soundcheck. Once in our room we toyed with the idea of sharing a king-sized bed and purchasing pyjama-hats but ended up giving the King to Justin and Hugh and I split the single beds.

The Soundcheck turned out to be stage managed (mad hey?) by the Kaiser Chiefs stage manager, who was surprisingly bereft of gossip-worthy stories about his boys. 'Nah sorry man, they're mostly all married and get early nights. Really, just normal lads.' Yawn. The stage was massive and gave me lots of room to run around, which I dutifully did.
The gig itself was pretty good, the others were a bit off-put by the rock stage sound, but I loved it. We played after Lawrence Leung's comedy show which was as brilliant as ever and which the crowd loved. We played at this venue in a park right on the waterfront in front of some huge skyscrapers.
Amazingly waiting for me after the gig was blixt and Mr Blixt who proved to be informative, friendly, curious and hilarious in equal measures. blixt helped us polish off our daunting rider of bizarre fruit and cheeses and quite sensibly, left us to gently trash our hotel room before sleeping like logs.

After exploring Fremantle a little, all liking it immensely, and visiting Little Creatures Brewery (where we, before midday, ACTUALLY saw a woman get vomited on by some random drunk guy) we played another, far better gig which had more banter and audience interaction. We went to a club called Amplifire, danced to quality indie tunes until 5AM, took some people back to our hotel room and swam in the pool with bottles of wine, saunaed and ruthlessly used the treadmill. How rock!

Hugh and I stayed another 4 days, snorkeled and cycled around Rottnest Island, which was the highlight of the trip. SUCH beautiful water and friendly fish. Fremantle was still fantastic, especially when I was exploring around the University of Notre Dame which I have decided to try to get into once I've finished my degree. It seems very good, the staff seem friendly and the students have a broad variety of backgrounds. It also seems like a place that wouldn't distract me too much.

The plane trip back gave me The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford, a film I had been incredibly looking forward to seeing but which cut out RIGHT when Jesse James is assassinated to allow us to land in Melbourne. Hot dang! They should have just kept circling. Anyway, after many stresses and an obscenely expensive cab fare, I made it to the Sonic Youth gig I had tickets for where I met up with my cousin and some pals and saw a killer show. I've written too much already. In short, I'm back at school know and simultaneously loving it, and dreading the coming weeks and all the homework I need to do, some of which I'll be starting right about now....

Got my license! I can drive! I got it on my second attempt. The first I was too nervous and kept turning corners and entering intersections too fast, one of which undid me when a car had to stop for me after I went past a Give Way while checking a bicycle lane I knew was empty over my other shoulder. Two days, one Arcade Fire and one LCD Soundsystem show, not quite enough sleep and some yoga later, and I was AOK and scored 96%.
Naturally my license photo has me looking like I've just been pulled off the dance floor at a rave for looking too happy. Clearly I was a little excited.

I have vaguely begun shopping for a car though my standards for the vehicle I purchase are totally absurd and willfully ill-informed. The car must be unusual but not too quirky, must have a wooden dashboard, be automatic, run on diesel or gas, be big enough to carry my amps and guitars, actually beautiful to look at (i.e--European), preferably old but not falling to pieces or rusty and under $8000. I feel it will be a long and languorous search.

Have been working on the theme for a friend's TV show. It's a comedy series whose name I cannot reveal for televisual security reasons (actually true) but it's a warm show about childhood ambition and the realisation of dreams. Mainly it's set in 1984 so the theme has to feature computery bleeps, strident melodies and be over in 30 seconds. Take 1 was well-received but there is much editing and head-scratching to do before I see my name in the credits. It's on ABC TV, Wednesday nights at 8:30 (after Spicks and Specks for those of you who know about these things) and starts in September or October.

Both Arcade Fire and LCD Soundsystem shows were at the greatest venue in the city (The Forum) and both - particularly Arcade Fires' - were magnificent.

Man Gilmore Girls is good.

Big Day Out was interesting. Mainly it was a blast. When recounting the day to others you forget the heat, the queues the literally overwhelming number of Rage Against The Machine fans, the nauseating sight of cocky idiots wrapped in the ethical armour of an Australian flag, the small-quantities of overpriced food, the dust, the sheer number of distractions from the headline acts and say 'Bjork was brilliant!', 'Arcade Fire were ace!' and 'Our show went really well!' and that's how I'd rather remember it. 45 minutes of being crushed in a crowd in an effort to get into the D-section in front of the big stages was a highlight too, and a necessary part of the whole experience.

Our show did go really well, some people knew the words to Golden Gaytime and, best of all, our new song Wow Wow (in which Justin becomes a monster called Wow Wow for the verses before we all burst into a nonsensical sunshine-singalong pop chorus) went down brilliantly with people singing the chorus after we'd finished the set. Plus our new joke ending of silently rocking out and collapsing on stage drew laughs aplenty. Managing to get Bjork's towel handed to me from the stage was a personal highlight, that it wasn't used was a minor downside but I'm sure there is enough of her DNA on it to make it better than every other plain white towel in Northcote. A complete review of her phenomenal show - better than the one in Sydney even - is on my Myspace page.

I go for my driving test tomorrow morning. It's a very big step in my growing up and getting over this Peter Pan nature that has been a defining characteristic in my refusal to embrace adulthood. It's finding a balance of unbridled youthful excitement and being able to be responsible that I'm still looking to find and this seems like a step worth taking. I still find cars ugly (though some European designs are beautiful), outdated lethal polluting monstrosities and have no intention of actually owning one until the perfect Citroen comes my way, but it does seem like a milestone I should have.

I doubt anyone will have been concerned enough to have been checking in on my hibernating LJ, most of us seem to be getting more and more drawn into the world of Facebook, but thank you for dropping into my diary.

For me the backlash has been brewing since I began using it, but it's taken until recently for my dissatisfaction with status updates as a description of my life to return to dear LJ.
Anyway, excuses aside, here is what I've been up to:

I got great marks at school, I broke up with Bridget in a way I'd rather not discuss here (she has now moved out, much to both of our relief), I sold most of the artworks I inherited for a far-greater-than-imagined sum which pleased me no end (my sister can buy some land in Tasmania - yay!), and I've been going to still more gigs, and writing still more articles. It's been a fantastic summer.

I got back from seeing Bjork at the Sydney opera House yesterday morning and it was such an amazing show, not only for the spectacular location (The Opera House with a full moon rising above it behind, the Harbour Bridge to the right, the Royal Botanical Gardens to the left and BJORK! in front) but her set took in all of her albums bar Debut and the spectacle was remarkable. Bizarre and funny costumes, simple and strong colour schemes of dark neon orange and green, shooting lasers over the Opera House and huge confetti cannons that put us all in a snowstorm for the duration fo the last song, Declare Independence. I lined up 6 hours before showtime and it was so worth it.

Tomorrow I play at the Big Day Out with The Bedroom Philosopher which I'm very much looking forward to. In the last month I've interviewed Low, Beirut, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Cansai De Ser Sexy, Baby Animals, Archie Roach and Don't Look Back Festival organiser Barry Hogan. Plus I've seen 15 gigs already this year, so you can see I've not had much time for reflecting, so here's some.

Even though we're deep into January, this is my round-up of 2007 as printed in Inpress:

TOP 10 ALBUMS

1. Neon Bible ARCADE FIRE
2. Boxer THE NATIONAL
3. Graduation KANYE WEST
4. Loney, Noir LONEY, DEAR
5. The Ruby Suns THE RUBY SUNS
6. The Cloud of Unknowing JAMES BLACKSHAW
7. Proof Of Youth THE GO! TEAM
8. From Here We Go To Sublime THE FIELD
9. Theory Of Machines BEN FROST
10.Pikelet PIKELET

TOP 3 ARTISTS OF THE YEAR

1. Muscles
2. Battles
3. Pikelet

TOP 3 INTERNATIONAL ARTIST GIGS

1. Pet Shop Boys at Sidney Myer Music Bowl
2. Daft Punk at Sidney Myer Music Bowl
3. The Pixies at The Palace

TOP 3 LOCAL ARTIST GIGS

1. Muscles, Julian Nation, The Motifs, The Whales at Gertrudes
2. The Apartments at The Northcote Social Club
3. Sir, The Crayon Fields - The Toff in Town

TOP 3 RADIO SHOWS

1. I'd Rather Jack - RRR
2. Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo - BBC Radio Five
3. Bluejuice - PBS

TOP 3 TV SHOWS

1. Life On Mars
2. Spicks And Specks
3. Summer Heights High

TOP 3 FILMS

1. Hairspray
2. The Fountain
3. Inland Empire

TOP 3 ONLINE DESTINATIONS

1. last.fm
2. poplookandlisten.com
3. google.com

THE EMPEROR'S NEW CLOTHES AWARD (MOST OVER-HYPED)

They're very nice new clothes yes The Horrors, but could you write a decent song please lads?

IF THE CRAPTASTIC SLOGAN OF THIS YEAR WAS KEVIN07, WHAT WILL 2008'S BE?

"O8AMA. His Year. Your Vote." For Barack Obama's presidential campaign.

HIGHLIGHT(S) OF THE YEAR

Change of government. Whenever it rained. Finishing Harry Potter. The Pixies touring. Zulya winning an ARIA. The Apartments reforming. The fact that my albums of the year list looks like the highlights of this summer's gig announcements...loads really.

PREDICTION FOR 2008

Bush goes and international celebrations ensue. There is a collective move away from Facebook as people get 'application overload' and fed up with targeted advertising. Chats will weep for joy as Ween play during a gorgeous Meredith sunset and My Bloody Valentine tour with each gig being as tear-inducing as the Ween show.

QUOTE OF THE YEAR

"Spider-Pig, Spider-Pig, does whatever a Spider-Pig does. Can he swing from a web? No he can't, he's a pig, Look out! He is a Spider-Pig." Homer Simpson, The Simpsons Movie

BEST MEDIA MOMENT

Kerry O'Brien failing to contain his glee while calling Maxine McKew's victory in Bennelong on election night, confusing the ALP with the ABC and generally losing it. Glorious television.

2007 IN REVIEW

Facebook, Muscles going "woo!", climate change, Chris Lilley, Amy Winehouse, Battles, an endless trail of ace new local bands, the end of Blair and Howard; w00t. Most really impressive gigs involved bands interpreting computer-composed music in an engaging way (Basement Jaxx, Patrick Wolf, Pet Shop Boys, The Presets) or used loop pedals well. For whatever reason there seemed to be more underwhelming albums than captivating ones this year, suggesting we're getting used to singles and 'shuffle' and less likely to pay attention to a 45 minute sequence. Geographically disparate rhythms and layered soundscapes leaped further to the fore this year which kept things fresh; like dancing to SBS (M.I.A, AiH, Animal Collective, new Ruby Suns etc.) and replaced 2006's angular edge. This year felt like a clean-out or transition, priming us for better music and better decisions made by better political leaders next year. Bring it on.

I'd like to say that it's entirely because of school that I haven't been posting here, but I've also been writing alot of articles, playing lots of gigs - and rehearsing for them, spending too much time playing online Scrabble and at Facebook and been having actual real interactions with people which has mostly been great.

Since I last wrote, the Film Festival passed - with David Lynch's Inland Empire, the Joe Strummer documentary The Future Is Unwritten, the Joy Division biopic Closer, and the Mongolian film Khadak being my favourites. The last film has one of the greatest opening sequences I've ever seen, then the ensuing story of "is the boy the latest in a great line of shamans, or just a mixed up street kid with epilepsy" told with an incredible visual style that left me feeling a bit lost, sometimes rivieted and occasionally bored. Still, it is a great film and local film buff Anthony Carew's film of the festival.
I saw the first half an hour of one of the films I most wanted to see, The Journals Of Knud Rasmussen, partly because I was supposed to actually BE in it (as a Danish missionary), and partly because it's a film about the Inuit and set exclusively in the high Arctic, but unfortunately the film jammed in the projector, burnt through (looking, briefly, quite lovely in the process) and the cinema was evacuated. Hopefully it will get at least a limited release here.

Since then I've ben getting back into schoolwork and, once again, taking on a few too many gig reviews and interviews at Inpress. I was due to interview Lemmy from Motorhead but he wound up cancelling his Australian interviews after the third postponement, which was a shame, he would have been brilliant. An interview with Funeral For A Friend finally got published, and 747s, Skipping Girl Vinegar and Kid Confucius have also recently fallen under my pen. Still waiting to hear back from A Place To Bury Strangers, I'm From Barcelona and James Blackshaw. Writing is fantastic.

My inheritance finally came through in the form of some official letters, a hefty tax rate and a chequebook, which seemed very antiquated, but surprisingly practicable. As a result, I'm out of debt (save this school fee I've begun amassing again now that I'm back here) and thinking that a term deposit is a good way to go.
I've also tendered the paintings my sister and I inherited to Deutscher Menzies auction house which was a bit of an adventure. Posh young suited art dealer (who you could just TELL had rarely ventured north of the Yarra) saying all these wonderful things and being so flattering. Interestingly, his great aunt had travelled to London in the 1930s to learn from my great grandfather so we bonded on that a bit. They reduced their usual commission rate and will be exhibiting them in Sydney in December.

The numerous gigs have been awesome, especially the one supporting childhood legend Peter Combe. Well, not so much MY childhood legend, but the gig we played with him was a mystifyingly intense nostalgia trip for everyone who turned up. Many of the 550 people there were dressed up in the manner of one of his songs - Newspaper Mama newspaper hats, Toffee Apples, Juicy Juicy Green Grass, Wash Your Face In Orange Juice etc. Heaps of fun, but strange. It is so much fun to be playing again, AND with my new exciting Rickenbacker bass which should still be visible below. I set off a car alarm in front of the house yesterday by cranking my amp up and jumping around the room. I'm sure it's the bass not my hefty bulk that did it.

Summer is looking very exciting. Lots of festivals, lots of gigs, and no homework. Which is something I'd best get back to now.

Sicko was great. Though of course Michael Moore is shamelessly guilty of bending facts to suit his own ends (indeed, notice that as soon as he talks about anything that you know about, you can tell this), I can forgive him for that because that is already how Americans (who he basically makes his films for), are already used to getting their information. It would be great to see a well-rounded exploration of the subjects Moore tackles, but it wouldn't be quite as entertaining as his hijinks and tangents.
This was not quite to Bowling For Columbine's standard, but still worth a really good.
Mister Lonely was fantastic, in both senses of the word. Concerning a Michael Jackson impersonator living in Paris who meets a Marilyn Monroe impersonator who takes him to a commune where other impersonators (Charlie Chaplin, Little Red Riding Hood, the Three Stooges, Abe Lincoln etc.) live, Harmony Korine intercuts this story with one of a missionary in South America (played by Werner Herzog) and nuns literally taking leaps of faith from an aeroplane it's a bizarre and oddly successful film.
The Joe Strummer documentary was brilliant, boosted by a surprise appearance of the director Julian Temple. It was SO rapidly edited and SO much material was available to them that it really couldn't fail to hold the attention, plus the galvanising force of Strummer's music and general sense of conviction about things (rightly or wrongly) made it all the more arresting. The audible groan from the cinema when Bono turned up was pretty funny.

Also saw an oddly beautiful and drifting mediation on a bestiality case that resulted in a death called Zoo, a pretty dire film about the life of Errol Flynn (which SHOULD have been brilliant given the subject matter and the prominence of my home town in it), a great no-budget account of a girl in Sydney courting and meeting up with an Indian girl in the UK called Searching For Sandeep, a mostly successful (but ultimately confusing) film called The Last Winter. This is an American/Icelandic horror film about a group of people digging for oil in the Alaskan north, but in the rapidly warming winter days, it becomes apparent that the Earth itself is turning against them. Like a cross between The Shining and An Inconvenient Truth - an ace idea but not wholly successfully rendered.

Year Of The Dog was great fun, though, as expected, watching !B's face watching the dogs on screen was the most fun part. About a woman who's beagle dies which sets her on a case of internal healing by trying to fix the external world via animal rights. Sometimes funny, but mostly very endearing.
The Simpsons Movie was brilliant too, as I'm sure many of you know. Really, they couldn't go wrong, but it was odd seeing them animated in a slightly different way and there were a LOT of moments of priceless hilarity Oatmeal Enthusiast? Spider Pig? Genius.

Played a gig at the Northcote Social Club last Thursday which went really well. My bass guitar was playing up a bit and I was incredibly excited when I visited Music Swop Shop and saw a Rickenbacker 4001, a bass I've been hunting for for several years. I put a deposit on it right away. It looks like this except like it's been played in a punk band for ten years (which it has).



At last. A decent bass.
This can't come a moment too soon as I have 7 gigs in the next month, and I'm lending gear to my friends who are supporting The Shins next week at The Corner. I think I'm playing percussion. Yay!