Electric Guitar

Seriously, I really want one, just so I can rock out and play KC Accidental all the time.

Violin actually should work pretty sweetly, though. Especially if I borrow Steve’s effects pedal .

Broken Social Scene @ Manning Bar, 28-02-08

OMG OMG OMG SWEET SWEET SWEET SWEET SWEET AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That is pretty much the best way to sum up my thoughts about Broken Social Scene live. The energy, the rocking out, the crowd, the humour, the fun, the band, the venue, the KEVIN! It was all gosh-darned superb!

The set opened with Kevin Drew coming out on stage and introducing pretty much everyone in the band, who then went on to play an instrumental of some sort. Then he introduced Feist. Then they played KC Accidental! Oh my, it was grand! That song is going to be stuck in my head for at least the whole of tonight.

Surprisingly, the highlight song of the entire show would probably be a toss-up between KC Accidental (from You Forgot It In People) and the fast version of Major Label Debut (from the To Be You And Me EP). The energy they created in the crowd was phenomonal for the both of them.

The whole set was freaking awesome. I actually don’t think I can put it in any more words than that. All you will read is me raving about how awesome and fun the whole thing was. It was sweet as(s)!! (Kevin’s joke, not mine…).

I’ll finish up by saying just two things: Steve correctly predicted the opening song (KC Accidental, pretty much) and I correctly predicted the encore/final song (It’s All Gonna Break – where on earth else is it going to go?!).

Oh, and K-os is one cool dude (he even gets a picture of his own because he’s not in the one at the top).

And Manning Bar was a really good venue for BSS, Enmore would’ve been too big.

And the support band (Belles Will Ring) were pretty good too, but I can’t really remember them because of the awesomeness of Broken Social Scene (sorry guys).

Also, because Steve and I were so excited on our way home (and that I kept trying to play KC Accidental on air guitar), we ended up getting late night kebabs and raiding my fridge for Ginger Beer, and wound up at Steve’s place figuring out the notes for KC Accidental on his super-cool keyboard so that I can play it on the violin. It’s a bit late now (and I have work tomorrow!), but when the time comes, my violin is going to have it’s socks rocked off by my super KC Accidental playing and rocking out. We also got the brass part of Casimir Pulaski Day (by Sufjan Stevens, not BSS), so I will be able to play that on violin too (I can already kind of pluck the guitar part, but it’s rather hard). So yeah, exciting!!

Oh, and the set went for OVER TWO HOURS. Take that, Nick :p. The band seemed to be loving it just as much as the crowd, and neither wanted to leave at all.

OMFG BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE FTW!!!

Sorry, this was a pretty innapropriate review. I can’t get over the excitement though!

Love

Yes, I am in love!!

…

With International Studies! Lol, sorry to disappoint you all (well, I guess there’s possible relief, too)… But seriously, it’s the greatest thing ever! I had my second Spanish Language and Culture seminar this morning, and it was brilliant. Elizabeth, my tutor, is awesome, despite her strange hairstyle, and, contrary to high school language subjects, she is actually Spanish! Like, a native speaker. But her English is also perfect! Omg love.

There are also multitudes of wonderful people to talk to, which is a big contrast to IT, where, besides my little posse of friends, nobody is very easy to talk to. I went to my first Spanish class knowing absolutely nobody, but the guy I sat next to, Dimitri, is awesome, so I just chatted to him lots! Then in today’s class, I was a tad late, so I was stressed for the first half until we had a break, and then I started chatting to the girl next to me, Sara, who I believe is North American, and very nice (although she was struggling with the teaching method – she wants lists of stuff to learn!).

Then after class today, I got chatting to Michelle on the way to the tower. She is doing Law and enjoying the break from such a hard subject, just as I am enjoying the break from IT, which is not so hard, but needs breaks nonetheless. On our way out of Haymarket it was pouring, though, and Germaine, who is in both my Spanish class and my group for Foundations in International Studies, jumped under my umbrella, and I walked her to Broadway, where her car was parked. She is doing a Communications degree. I can’t remember which one, but apparently it involves writing creative things and then sharing them with the class in discussing them. Rather bludgy, she thinks, and I cannot help but agree. She is pretty awesome, too.
Anyway, enough of my meeting people. I just thought I’d write that to show how easy it is to just talk to people randomly. Yay! Love International Studies! Also love rain! Because I love rain. And also because if it wasn’t raining I wouldn’t have walked Germaine to Broadway, and also wouldn’t have got some apples and iced coffee, both of which are delicious. It was seriously pouring, though; I had to hang stuff up to dry when I got home, despite my trusty umbrella.

I figure I should write some more about other Uni, too, considering it’s my first week back. I had Foundations in International Studies on Tuesday, and although it looks like hard work, I’m really excited. The topic this week (besides introducing us to the subject) was the impact of war (namely World War II) on Japan and Germany, and it’s super super interesting! Next week is a case study about French as a global language. We have also been put into small groups in our tutorials. My group is made up of me and three other girls. It’s slightly overwhelming, but also exciting because it’s a complete contrast to IT, throughout which I’ve only ever had one girl in one of my groups. It’s not that I want to hit on them though, I swear! It’s just a nice change. Although that said, given what most of the IS guys are like, I’d be more than happy in a group with them, too.

Information System Development Methodologies was also on Tuesday, and so far it’s one of the most boring subjects ever (doesn’t it even sound boring?!). I wanted to blacklist it, and not go to a lecture ever again, but we decided to give it one more go before deciding. So it’s brownlisted. We will go to the tutorial though, of course.

This afternoon I have Database Fundamentals, which I think will be considerable more interesting than ISDM, but hardly close to the awesomeness of Spanish and FIS.

So I guess that so far, even though I’m only a week in, this is shaping up to be the best semester of Uni so far! Last year I got to the stage where I was not appreciating most of it, and skipping lectures such as Collaborative Business Processes and the occasional other subject, but I’m really appreciating being here so far. Uni ftw! Hehe.

Adios, amigos!

Feisty Stevens – The Zombies Are Inside Out!!

So I just found a bit of a mash-up song by Kevan Gilbert – it’s called The Zombies Are Inside Out!!, by Feisty Stevens. Now, some of you will probably guess what this is before I say it, but for those of you who aren’t fans of Sufjan Stevens and Feist, it’s a mix of Sufjan’s They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbours!! They Have Come Back From the Dead! Ahhhh! and Feist’s Inside Out. It actually works surprisingly well, and I really enjoyed listening to it. You can read more about the background of the song and download it here.

Good Morning, Welcome to a New Semester!

I think I have pretty much the coolest alarm tone ever at the moment. And by alarm tone I mean the song that comes on when I need to wake up (via my phone). It’s Good Morning by Kanye West, and it’s pretty much perfect. Even the Good Mornings start almost exactly when it goes fully loud, just at the right time. It also says “Wake up Mr West”, and although I’m not Mr West, it’s still half right, right?

I start a new year of Uni today, with a 2 hour ‘Seminar 1′ for Spanish Language and Culture. The subject comprises of two seminars, the other being Thursday morning. I wonder if one will be language, and the other culture, or maybe they’re a mix of both? I guess I’ll find out in a couple of hours. I’m pretty stoked!

I was reading through my Foundations in International Studies subject outline last night, and although it sounds rather daunting (more organisation and effort required) than I.T., it also sounds really exciting and interesting.

As for my two I.T. subjects – Information System Development Methodologies and Database Fundamentals, I currently know nothing about them, as is normal for any I.T. class. Not that there’s too many variations on either of those topics.

So, for anybody interested, I have class Monday (2hrs), Tuesday (6hrs) and Thursday (5hrs), and work Wednesday and Friday. Sounds pretty full-on, but most of my class days are pretty lazy, so I’m not too concerned.

On another note… Where would I be able to print a nice glossy CD cover that I made? I’m gonna try the Harvey Norman photo print service, but I’m not terribly confident.

I Am Thinking It’s A Sign… Literally

Not long back I mentioned that I took a trip to Melbourne with Mollie. Heading back to the car, I noticed a sign at the entrance to the park we’d been sitting in. Take a squiz:

What the hell kind of exception is that?!

Peter Sarstedt – Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)

Pretty much the first thing I did after seeing The Darjeeling Limited (which I highly recommend) was to find out the song that Jack (Jason Schwartzman) kept playing, throughout both the preceding short film Hotel Chevalier (which I loved), and the movie itself. Turns out it was Where Do You Go To (My Lovely), a 1969 classic by Peter Sarstedt. Even though it’s all in English, it has that French feel about it, the one that makes me desparately want to be in Paris. Reminds me of the Amélie soundtrack by Yann Tiersen, and Paris 2004 by Peter Bjorn and John (okay, so they’re all different, but… you know). So it’s been my obsession song for the last while, heh.

Anyway, if you want to check it out, I actually have a link this time. Click here!

My North American Road Trip

Okay, so I don’t have any specific plans at the moment, but I decided to put some points on a map and, well, join them together! All with the wonderful Google Maps. Obviously it’s not all the places that I’d visit, but I marked some of the special ones (originally it was just L.A., Denver, Chicago, New York, and Miami, but it kinda grew…).

Catching Up

I haven’t blagged about life in general recently, I think, so I guess it’s time for a bit of an update.

Starting with when I was back in Ballarat, I was quite busy the last few days. I went to Queenscliff with my family to visit my Grandmother on Sunday. She stays there in a caravan for a few weeks every year, and it’s always nice to see her. We went for a walk along the beach, and came across my Grade 2 teacher, who my Mum was friends with, and who also taught my brother. It was interesting to see her, I can’t believe she remembered us all!

Sunday night, I felt like taking a trip to Melbourne, but it was a bit late, so it was delayed until the next day. I guess I’ve just heard so many great things about Melbourne, and how it’s better than Sydney, and seeing as I haven’t spent a great deal of time there in recent times, I wanted to check it out. And have a lamb souvlaki, which are one of the things I know are better in Melbourne. Way better (Sydney souvlakis/kebabs suck). But apart from the souvlakis, I didn’t really know. Well, turns out it is actually nicer. Wider streets, where you can fit like 8 people across plus a whole lot of seats for cafes, as opposed to maybe four people across, minus room for signs, bins, etc that you get in Sydney. Also, it’s a lot quieter. I assume this is due to both the lack of buses, which in Sydney seem to create a great deal of the noise, and the wider streets, so there’s more room for the sound to disappear into.

I guess it helped that it was a beautiful day, though, and not a horrible, cold, miserable one, something for which Victoria is reknowned :p.

I went with Mollie, which is actually something I was going to keep quiet, so that people don’t think there’s something going on (there isn’t, and I wouldn’t care except for other stuff going on with other people, ugh), but it seems integral to the story, so I’m not about to omit it. We went for lunch on Lygon St, which is always delicious, and sat in a park with the annoying seagulls to eat it. Except there actually weren’t that many seagulls, simply because there was a baby seagull, which would follow the other seagulls around whining it’s arse off, until the other seagull would literally run away, it was that bad. Pretty funny…

We then headed to Federation Square to find my friend Alex, who for some reason took the day off school and caught the train into the city (tut tut). Anyway, we met up with her, and then went to St Paul’s catherdral, because Mollie wanted to light a candle for the dead babies. Alex and I didn’t light candles, so we wandered around the church. It’s pretty amazing!

Next stop (again, Mollie’s idea) was the National Gallery to lie under the stained-glass ceiling. It was totally awesome! There were a number of people also lying there, and for good reason. I probably could’ve stayed for ages and not get bored ever. Also at the NGV I stood behind the waterfall glass, because it is heaps cool. The others thought it was just weird. Pfft.

I think we pretty much just sat in the park after that, because Mollie and I were tired and stuff. After Alex left (she had to catch the train home before her Mum got there…), we walked to another path and sat and chatted for another couple of hours before heading home.

I drove my brother’s panelvan, which was actually pretty good, except that Mollie was afraid it would ruin her reputation forever (probably true. I save mine by blasting Belle and Sebastian and other non-panelvanesque music as often as possible). Also, I hate the left-hand mirror, I can’t see much at all out of it, so while I don’t hesitate in squeezing into tight spaces on the right, when I was merging left I tended to leave a good half-block between me and any other car. It also ran out of fuel halfway up the Pentland hills, because my brother was fiddling with the dash the day before and it reset the fuel metre, so I thought we had more fuel than we actually did. No matter, though, I just switched to petrol! Yay!

But yeah, a really fantastic day, even though it made me wish Sydney was just a bit more like Melbourne (except for the weather). Even if it just had proper lamb souvlakis, I would be considerably more content… Lol.

Okay, away from my trip to Melbourne… I flew home the next day. It was actually kinda scary, because the plane landed on a bit of an angle, and I thought we were going to crash, although obviously we didn’t. Then we had to wait on the taxiway for a little while, because apparently something was going on inside the terminal (I was never to find out what, but I guess it wasn’t serious). Then, soon after I landed, I found out that Broadway shopping centre had blown up. Which makes it two things that have blown up within two blocks of my apartment in the last couple of weeks. Kinda freaky, really…

Other than that, I’ve just been working the last few days, something which I’ve really enjoyed. Even staying back an hour or two has been good. I also received a parcel of books in the mail (from Amazon), so I’m going to be reading a lot in the future. They include Gang Leader For A Day by Sudhir Venkatesh, which is reportedly an excellent book, Sin In The Second City by Karen Abbott, another raved-about one (I found both these from the Freakonomics blog, and both are only available in the States at the moment, as far as I know), Head First SQL (because it’s about half the cost of getting it in a bookshop here), a graphic novel called The Plain Janes (which is interesting, considering I’m currently hooked on Y: The Last Man, another graphic novel (or series thereof), recommended by Nick. This one was recommended by somebody else a while ago), and a few other randoms which I look forward to reading. Oh, and there’s always my backlog of New Scientist and a couple of other music magazines which I bought yesterday. Eek! Oh well, reading is pretty awesome so I don’t think it will bother me too much :p.

Well, I guess I’d better get back to work. It’s weird at the moment, I can see straight out the front door and across the road, because there is actually no door. There was one yesterday! They are just replacing it, though, so there will be a new door there by this afternoon some time. Hopefully it looks pretty nice, even though it will block my two-way view again.

But yeah, back to work. A bientot!

Belle and Sebastian – Push Barman To Open Old Wounds

You know, when I first thought about reviewing this album, I thought it’d be interesting, because it had a mix of good and not-so-good tracks, so I could easily say both positive and negative things and contrast different tracks. But giving it another listen before writing anything, I discovered that I was completely wrong.

There’s barely a less-than-great track on there, despite the whole album being a collection of seven old EPs – a whopping twenty-five tracks. Most of them bear a lot more resemblance to If You’re Feeling Sinister rather than the likes of Dear Catastrophe Waitress or The Life Pursuit, both of which are generally a lot more upbeat, at least in melody.

There’s a few that don’t quite match up to the brilliance of the rest of the album, but the great tracks more than compensate, and with so many tracks to choose from, there’s easily enough brilliant content to fill a regular album’s worth. So definitely no lack of lastability there.

Highlights for me include:

- The State I Am In.
- The tale of Belle and Sebastian, which maybe just gives some insight into the roots of the band.
- Lazy Line Painter Jane, a duet with then-vocalist-and-cello-player Isobel Campbell.
- The wonderful lyrics of A Century of Fakers.
- This Is Just A Modern Rock Song, despite the fact it goes on for just a bit long…
- Winter Wooksie, probably one of the cutest songs ever.
- I’m Waking Up To Us, which I consider the best break-up song ever. The irony being that Isobel Campbell, who Stuart wrote this song about, sang backing vocals on it.

And they’re just the absolute best highlights. There’s plenty of other brilliant songs on the album, most of which I probably haven’t yet discovered. I highly recommend giving this a listen, or at least a Belle and Sebastian album of some sort (they’re all pretty brilliant, with the possible exception of Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like A Peasant, which slightly makes up for it with the awesome title).

Okay, so maybe I’m just completely obsessed with Belle and Sebastian. So what?

P.S. I haven’t put a download link, because I wouldn’t know where to look for one, but I’m sure Nick could probably provide one. Or you could just buy it.