Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Where's the fuckin' justice?!

Well the post I deferred yesterday will have to be deferred again today, because I am way too full of angst not to have a good rant.

I had another abysmal day, the alarm didn’t go off again this morning which is a bit of a fucking worry, but at least my delayed awakening wasn’t to the same extent as yesterday. I had time to do what I needed to do, but it was rushed… which sucks first thing in the morning. Work was work, and then I had the afternoon off to study, but I couldn’t focus, so it was wasted time, but I was at home after all, rather than work, so it wasn’t all that bad. I then rode my bike down to band practice as I normally do, but got a flat front inner tube, at this point I was starting to get fed up with the day. Band practice, however, was great and got my spirits up once more, that is until I took a swig of the wrong beer… in fact it was a beer that must’ve been sitting on my amp for a good few weeks, as it had big chunks of mould floating about in it… which was gross. Then the best bit… I got pulled over for running a red light on my fucking PUSHBIKE, keeping my mind it was 9:45 at night in a fairly quiet town (no cars on the road at all!).

This leads me to the conclusion that being a big tall man is not necessarily a positive thing. As I towered over the little policeman that was writing me up, I couldn’t help but thinking that he was exerting something higher than ‘little man syndrome’ (which I will probably cover extensively in the future), but rather ‘little cop syndrome’. Anyway, I tried to take this in my stride even though I thought it was bullshit (I mean… innit?), and rode home (even though the cop told me to walk my bike home [WTF? If you drove you car through a red light and didn’t lose you licence, I’m sure they wouldn’t tell you to push your car home]) only to get a flat rear inner tube miles from home… and of course I’d put my spare tube in the front earlier.

Anyway, this leads me to my point (the crux of this post, if you will)… The justice system is completely fucked! A man can beat the shit out of a Chinese woman whilst on bail for another racial attack, get caught, and still walk free!!!(http://www.themercury.com.au/article/2010/06/25/154441_tasmania-news.html) And yet I can get done for a ‘cycling offence’.

Go and listen to ‘Fuck tha Police’ by N.W.A

I’m off the stew about all of this in bed,

Night night.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Peaches come from a can, they were put there by a man, in a factory downtown.

This morning Dom (my housemate) knocked on my door and said 'you gettin' up man?', and I was all like 'fuck off, it's so early...', but then looking at my watch, I realised I had about 5 minutes until my lift to work arrived. I had just enough time to put my clothes on and feed the cat before heading out the door to find my lift waiting for me, so I had to start my day by apologising for keeping the guys waiting with bad breath and body-odour whilst wearing the socks and jocks I slept in… Needless to say it was a long shitty day at work. Now I’m at home studying (writing this during one of my scheduled ‘procrastination sessions’) and later I'll try and nut out my solo set.

I had epic things planned for today’s blog, but alas, you will have to be satisfied with this (which is actually quite epic in its own right).

By the way, I am not going to comment on the recent political happenings, because there’s enough opinion out there (in my opinion)… except to say that I’m pleased that Julia isn’t a God-botherer! It’ll make the election more interesting.

Go and listen to ‘Avoiding Catatonic Surrender’ by Tim Barry

Go forth, children of god (and peace ect…)

Heres a photo I took whilst on my vacant block of land

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Ride the Tiger!

The bassist in my band (Nic [Dicko]) is also in another, really bloody good band, called Ride the Tiger, they played the other week with Hawaiian Islands. Here are some shots I took with the Pentax SLR, they're a bit grainy, so deal with it...

First shot is of my housemate and drummer Dom, the rest of 'em are the band.









Awesome gig by the way...

I'd love to say that they always dress like this, but I would be lying.

Go and listen to 'Danny' by Ride the Tiger (http://www.myspace.com/ridethetigerrock)

Live long and prosper

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Hey Darlin’, do you gamble?

I got some of these films for a steal on ebay recently, and am about halfway through the first roll in my old Pentax SLR.



Will let you know how they turn out, and post some shots on here if they're any good.

Go and watch this video - http://vodpod.com/watch/3769718-zz-top-sharp-dressed-man-crazy-drummer It will blow you mind, trust me.

Peace and love

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

If you think carrots are crass, i'ma pop a cap in yo' ass!

Older ladies eh? They can make you feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside (I mean that in a totally non-creepy way), I’ll expand –

I really love imagining what people say/yell/mutter when they put down the phone after finishing a phone conversation with me, especially when it’s a work related matter being discussed. Usually it would be something along the lines of ‘blow it out your arse you prick!’ or a more simple ‘what an arsehole.’ Today however I had a nice old lady (old duck, if you will) that couldn’t thank me enough for my time and patience in helping her out, and I could imagine her saying something along the lines of ‘what a nice young fellow’ after our conversation. Anyway after this I kind of had old ladies on the brain. At lunch when I asked the older lady that always sells me my lunch if I could have a vegetarian wrap, she said ‘sorry dear, did you say vegetarian wrap?’, at this point I had the best vision of this old lady busting out some crazy pro-vegetarian rhymes with me laying down some mad beat-boxing. Wrap – RAP! Get it? ...ah, forget it (it sounds mediocre in writing, but it was awesome in my brain).

So I looked back at the few posts that I’ve done and realised that I said I would tell you all about my band, and still haven’t. I cant be bothered doing it now, but I can say that we practiced tonight, and apart from being freezing, it was great, we should probably be right to gig by the end of the year. Last practice the other three dudes in the band (that aren’t me) wrote a song while I was up the other end of the house taking a piss… we practiced it as a band tonight and it kicks arse! Yay!

I have also booked my first solo gig, it’s in a months time, so I gotta get crackin’ with the song writing and practicing.

Go and listen to 'Heather' by Heavens
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TM_qGodKF-w)

Here is a photo I took of some bridges in Amsterdam

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Methlabs and Bookstores.

I ran into my friend Chris Burrows the other night, and we decided that we will tour together at the start of next year, so look out mainland Australia! I’m coming for you… eventually (something tells me that I need more than one song first).

I’ve been learning banjo and Burrows tells me he has too, so expect some duelling banjos and a generally just an ol’ fashion hoedown.

If you are un-cultured enough to not have heard Chris Burrows’ songs, go here - www.myspace.com/chrisburrows

Also, you guys should check out Project Free-TV if you haven't already, it's blowing my mind at the moment! I just finished all the seasons of Californication, and it rocked. I don't know the URL, just google project free-tv and submerge yourself in the joys of braindead television.

Go and listen to 'Methlabs and Bookstores' by Chris Burrows (here's a shitty video link - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFriNCcGr60)

Peace

Monday, June 21, 2010

It's not easy only eating greens.

I am a vegetarian (up here on my moral high ground, looking down upon all you pitiful carnivorous cavemen/women! [not really {well… kind of}]), so is my girlfriend (who will be referred to as K-Dub for the purpose of this blog [because it’s funny]), so we live a happy little vegetarian life together with relative ease, but damn it’s hard to be a vego in the real world, and here is why -

I work in the construction industry (try finding some non-leather steel-toe boots [dunlop volleys don’t count]) with blokey-blokes who just don’t understand vegetarianism at all. So it’s best not to even try to explain it, unless you’ve got all day and are willing to be patronised and asked dumb questions like ‘but you still eat fish and chicken right?’ which shits me to no end (we’ll get to that later), but I must admit that this is a slightly skewed sample. However, when in somewhere like a restaurant, for example, you should be able to ask what you are eating and be provided with a concise answer and peace of mind (if you care about what you are eating), but I’m surprised that waiters/waitresses in most places here in Tasmania are unaware where their eggs come from, for instance, and wont provide a vegan option, so you’ve either got to go elsewhere or take the risk.

Being a vegetarian in a small city can also find you in shitty social situations such as: the BBQ at work or at an acquaintance’s house (people that know you well, should know better by now), where there is no non-meat food available (a BBQ prepared by a man) so you end up doing the whole ‘bread-and-sauce’ thing, or, when there is some vege-burgers/sausages on the barbie (if this is the case you will be greeted with ‘Look, I went and got some vego food just for you!’, rather than a more conventional and socially acceptable ‘Hello’) it’s being deep fried on a scummy BBQ in a sea of meat juices… You will be treated like a monster if you decline this food. The best thing to do is bring some food of your own and some foil.

Another bad situation is when rsvp-ing to a function that costs money, recently all the functions for work have provided a meat covered menu with one option for a ‘vegetarian meal’, now I ain’t gonna pay $45 just to find on the night that I get a re-heated quiche, so I am the guy pestering them to ring the place and get me some options. You do get the feeling that these places call a dish ‘vegetarian’ just because it doesn’t have any pieces of meat in it.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that you should all stop eating meat, if only to make my life easier.

Anyway, I’m rambling now, so I’ll stop.

Go and listen to ‘Bottomless Seas’ by Hot Water Music

Peace

Here's a photo I took in NYC (Jersey City taken from Manhattan [I lived off food from an awesome vegan restaurant on Broadway]).

Saturday, June 19, 2010

The Cat Lady!

Here is my recount of a story that I was told by Chris’ housemate Deb.

Ok, to set the scene, Chris’ backyard has a clothes line at the edge of a roughly 2m drop, from this vantage point it is possible to see through a broken window into a room of the neighbouring commercial refrigeration warehouse. So Deb was atop this cliff hanging clothes on the line when she notices that her cat ‘Taxi’ is perched to pounce through the hole in the window, so she rushes over, collects the cat and stands to contemplate the broken pane, Deb told me she was standing there looking at the window and discussing possible solutions to the issue with the cat for something like ten minutes, whilst saying to Taxi ‘what are we going to do about this eh?’ and ‘I think I might have some cardboard that could cover the hole..’ ect… Only after all this time did Deb look beyond the actual broken pane to what was behind the pane and discovered that she was staring right at one of the male employees of this warehouse taking a dump whilst staring right back at her! She relised that she must have been looking directly at him for the whole time, said ‘oh fuck!’ and went back inside. The window was magically repaired the next day!

I nearly fell off my chair when I heard this.

To rub salt in Deb’s wound she found herself in the warehouse (which has recently been vacated and is currently for lease) with someone she knows that is interested in taking on the lease, when she told the story to her friend, the person showing them through the building said ‘Oh… You’re the Cat Lady!’

Funny shit!

I will tell you about my band in the next instalment.

Here is Chris' front door (inviting eh?)



Go and listen to ‘Vital Beach’ by the Blood Brothers

Peace

Saturday, June 12, 2010

What a terrible nightmare! Hang on…..Oh no!

Here are some photos from the roll I took over the last couple of weeks with my Asahi Pentax ME Super - I liked these.







The first one was taken on a walk in South Hobart, the second stars my beautiful girlfriend before departing to go somewhere, the third looks down the front path at my house, the forth it taken outside the museum in Hobart, and the fifth is looking up a tree. Hope you think they are nice, I do.

Go and listen to 'Sometimes the Line Walks You' by Murder By Death
(http://www.myspace.com/murderbydeath)

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Are You There, Margaret? It's Me, God...

Here is a cool photo I took in Paris




Ok, time for the second instalment, and I figure for this to work (me to promote my future awesome acts of greatness) you (the reader) will require some kind of insight into me (Andi), so that you will grow attached to me, care about me, respect me and look after me when I’m old, ect…

I guess the logical starting point is music, as the only creative thing that I am somewhat proficient at is playing music. Having said that, it is important to keep in mind that I have been writing an acoustic ep for a year now and have one (1) song complete, and it ain’t a masterpiece…. So yeah…

I do however have a band, not a gigging band just yet, but a band none the less! I think the band is called Cocktails and Dreams, although I may be wrong as we have had a line-up change (more of an addition) and haven’t really got any songs.

Shit… I’m not doing much of a job at talking up my aspiring musical career am I?
This sort of defeats the purpose of this blog, but I will try to perceiver regardless.

All you need know for now is that I play guitar and try to sing, both in a band without songs and in a solo act (Andi) with one (not really great) song.

Go and listen to ‘100 Resolutions’ by the Lawrence Arms (http://www.myspace.com/thelawrencearms)

Peace

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Hello World, This is Me!

I’m Andi, and this is my blog!

To be completely transparent, the sole purpose of this is to promote my future endeavours, because it seems this is the way of the future (I have no facebook you see..[this offcourse means that I am not invited to anything anymore, and have lost touch with most of the people I caught up with back in the day{until I get an iPhone that is}]).

Because I have the best taste in music I will also recommend a song at the end of each of these semi-regular (maybe…) entries.

Go and listen to ‘Never Felt Prettier’ by Planes Mistaken for Stars.

Peace