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From my seat at the media centre. Not quite as good as the Opera House outlook last year, but the passing parade keeps me interested.
It's only a little creepy, when I've been concentrating on my photos and look up to find I am being watched, instead of the other way around.
Marvel-ous tie-in with The Avengers...
BAM!
POW!
With the colour.
KABOOM!
With the prints.
Fun and colourful, but not a lot to garnish my wardrobe with.
Last month.
I hadn't seen the rockabilly blues of Mother and Son before, but I really enjoyed them, and not just because I'm partial to a man with a mo.
The two piece pumps out surfari-style instrumentals interspersed with thumping blues, as well as a Dylan-esque, 'Redcoats'.
Good stuff.
I especially loved the minty green guitar
up close and personal
You know what they say about drummer's facial expressions...
They sold me. I bought their cd.
The main event, who never fail to impress, but you've heard it all here before.
Just a shame there were so few people in the audience - and no-one dancing!
It was a Saturday night. Where was everyone?
Ladies and gentlemen - Gentle Ben and His Sensitive Side...
'You Were Always on My Mind', to finish.
I've been listening to both these bands as I drive through the South Australian outback at the moment. Good driving music.
While Nick Cave's, The Mercy Seat remains a firm favourite with my kids for sing-a-longs, they also really love Gentle Ben's, Suicide Machine.
Happy, fluffy bunnies, they are.
With warm summer weather back in Feb.
Perfect day at the beach!
Over summer, Patti and I took the kids along to the MCA to see the hugely interactive, and therefore delightfully kid-friendly, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer exhibition titled 'Recorders'.
Patrons moving through the various installations record and leave a little of themselves in each work. Perfect fodder for the narcissism we are all feeling a little bolder about showing, such is the generation of the 'me', or more influentially the 'i'.
'Please Empty Your Pockets' - just like an airport scanner, only funner...
'Tape Recorders' - my favourite because I love tape measures - they remind me of my childhood spent in home renovations, the visual simplicity was really attractive to me, and the irregular crashing sounds as they bent with the weight giving me a shock each time as well as making me smile.
In India's shadow...
Bellie Holiday
'Microphones'
'The Year's Midnight'
Evan's Heathen Child t-shirt rocks.
'Pulse Index'
I've become so accustomed to the view of pixels, it's easy to forget these are still the fingerprints - only smaller
'Close Up'
Before Kerstin (sadly) returned to Sweden, I took her to Manly for lunch.
Actually she ended up taking me to lunch, the lovely girl, but it was my idea. I had wanted to check out the Manly Pavilion for ages - my friend, Alex, keeps inspiring me with snippets of the yummy fare on offer - and Oh, it was so good!
Miserable day outside
But inside was as sunny and warm as could be as I feasted on venison carpaccio - Wow!
and the ten hour roasted lamb, so tender it evaporated on my tongue
We stuffed ourselves sore, and still loved it enough to ask for a doggy bag, sharing a little back at home with the kids...
who all agreed it was the best takeaway they'd had.
Nice place for some Sunday afternoon jazz, me thinks!
As we left, Kerstin was talking about the building that houses Manly Aquarium. I was surprised that she had never been there, though she had lived in Sydney for a number of years in the past, and insisted on taking her in.
I tend to take the experience for granted a little now, having been there so many times, but if it's the first time you've been this close to a shark, it's a pretty cool thing to do!
This guy got even closer
I adore these sea horses (dragons?)
Walking back to the car, we spotted this...
Not quite Melbourne's laneways, or Riga's bridges, but there's something going on with those thongs.
While the iconic Annandale Hotel is feeling a little reprieve from the possibility of permanent closure (after fighting noise compliance issues from the gentrified surrounds, battles with the council, and rising costs from nanny state policies) due in part to the brilliant idea of making the punters part of the hotel, the battle is not yet over.
The Buy a Brick scheme, has set the pub on the road to repair - but there is still a way to go.
Returning there in January to see Kill Devil Hills, I was fairly dismayed by the state of the place.
Comfy chairs removed, no pool table, carpets ripped up (actually, that's a good thing. The carpet was so sticky I would almost trip over walking on it), and the toilets - ugh! Visually they are close to rivalling the K M Sumba Rezekei*, but that smell. Lordy! Even from the girlies' powder room, it was so strong, the acrid stench reached the stage!
Oh, though, my love for the Annandale is enduring - so many great gigs, my stall at the rock and roll markets, the laksas, and of course, the Pioneers of Swedish Deathmetal trivia team, even my kids have all been there, and after speaking with the brothers Rule, I can assure you there is method to this renovation madness. The plan is to take the pub back to bare bones and work within the framework of the original 1930's features.
Awesome.
It will cost money, but the good news is, bricks are being sold and money is coming in, and for music fans, this is great. At the date of writing this, 310 bricks have been sold, but it's a big building, and an even bigger supporter of all live music, so I want to urge anyone who likes live music, to lend their support.
Back to the gig.
The night began with some toe-tapping bush folksy rock from The Handsome Young Strangers, complete with fair-dinkum bottle top percussion.
I thought they were great. Patti loved them enough to buy the CD,
but she also had to be dragged away from her spot directly in line with, and barely 1ft from in front of the speaker.
Just saying.
Second on the bill was the deliciously bluesey The Floors. A firm favourite of mine for the evening,
because I love blues.
Kerstin thought the drummer was dreamy. I didn't argue.
Nor did I get a photo of him. He was mover!
Dan Brodie was up next, and I like his sound, but my night had an odd feel to it, and I chose to just listen - it's good listening music -
...rather than watching from uncomfortable chairs or sucking down the smell of the lavatories front of stage, so we played in the anteroom, trying to outdo each other with mine and Kerstin's favourite pinball machine (Adams Family)
Kill Devil Hills, with the busy Perth brothers Luke and Ryan who also make up two thirds of The Floors, excited me, moved me, and then let me down a little. Soaring to great heights with belting, emotive rock and then flattening out with safer, more commercial fodder.
I love a fiddler.
They were a bit frustrating for me, just hitting the mark, then moving away into safe before I could really get into it. I was left wanting more of the passion.
But they have the goods to make it commercially. So I guess there's the trade-off, between the rawness I love, and the money, and I admire them in a way for straddling that divide.
Fun night with the girls.
I reckon I've seen more bands at the Annandale than anywhere else, and I always feel at home there, so lets all pitch in, get some trough lollies, and keep live music alive.
Fuck this, I'm going to the Annandale!
* K M Sumba Rezekei was the name of the wretched boat that I traveled 12 hours each way on, to the island of Nias, off the coast of Sumatra, back in 1991. It was one of those boats that would double to ship refugees across to Australia. The toilet - a hole cut in the floor of the boat - had walls that people had tried to grip to steady themselves against the inevitable rocking of the boat. People that were obviously mid-wipe when they stretched out and gripped those walls, for they were covered in shit, wee, and vomit. A most horrendous trip made worse by the fact that I was so sick in Nias that I dropped to 48kg (I am tall), and all I could think was that I had to make a return trip on that damn boat!
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