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What did you do this weekend?
People keep asking me what the top seven things I did this weekend were.
In no particular order, here they are…
1. Played an epic 3 hour long session of Future Tennis
2. Had breakfast at Riverbends Books, it’s like a bookshop where you can eat
3. Met nice new people and drank wine at The Supper Club, it’s a bit like my dungeon but full of wine and nice new people
4. Put a new Sexual Dad track on the internet, it has 13 views and I’ve watched it 11 times
5. Went to Alhambra and stood outside in front of some hot exhaust fan
6. Effectively adhered to my midnight curfew, two nights in a row
7. Opened the windows and listened to the sound of the Queensland rain
50 highlights and learnings from 2011
Yes I’m late, but here they are;
1. I realised that the number 7 is truly my favourite number.
2. I prefer whitewater rafting over skydiving.
3. Studying and working is a horrible life-destroying combination.
4. Lite ‘n’ easy actually tastes good, and it sure is easy.
5. Brisbane has a wicked country music station 98.9 FM.
6. Updating a website seven days in a row proved too much of a challenge (I managed six).
7. I am very lucky.
8. Had the best birthday in ages, a surprise cowboy party!
9. Learnt (again) that simple is usually best.
10. Discovered Game Of Thrones, the most epic fantasy fiction series ever.
11. However I still think my favourite book of all time is Frankenstein, and it is especially good in audiobook format.
12. 80% of the time I cooked (when I cooked) the same meal AND I LOVED IT.
13. Despite living with italian chefs for 6 months in 2010, few skills have transferred.
14. As above but regarding the Italian language.
15. Best live gig – Guitar Wolf (not as good as 2010′s best which was Overkill \m/)
16. I had a horrible year for creative output, few songs, few posts.
17. But this has left a nice space in my soul for new thoughts and passions to develop.
18. I developed an unhealthy obsession with spreadsheets.
19. And colour-coding.
20. Wore black shirts/t-shirts roughly 80% of the time.
21. Most of the remaining 20% was spent in black wife-beater singlets.
22. The beach holds a special magic for me.
23. Living in a dungeon is great when you have good Dungeon Masters.
24. Had very few visitors but each was special.
25. Queensland is beautiful and I got to explore some of it in winter on a fantastic relaxing holiday.
26. Had to introduce a midnight curfew to curb unhealthy drinking behaviour.
27. Total effective instances of applying the curfew = 1
28. Finally fixed my recording situation with the purchase of a new computer + Cubase, so no excuses now.
29. Failed completely to deliver an album for The Torrens to our record company.
30. Succeeded in using many buzzwords often, and with gusto, including ‘gr8′, ‘delta’, ‘core values’, utilisation’, ‘de-prioritise’ and ‘resource’ (when describing HUMANS).
31. Completed Uncharted 2, it was killer.
32. Mucked around with a few other PS3 games, notably Skyrim, Battlefield 3, Dragon Age, but not a big year for gaming at all.
33. Failed to re-commence latin dancing.
34. Hardly played any Future Tennis.
35. But I did wear my Future Tennis T-shirts with pride (especially the black one).
36. I keep catching myself acting/thinking like Dad.
37. I keep catching myself acting/thinking like Mum.
38. Luckily, I love them both and so do lots of other people, so that’s OK.
39. Deepened my love of dancehall music.
40. Remained obsessed with Dr Sakis.
41. Discovered Asian girly pop music.
42. Made a start at ‘being visual’ (painting, drawing, photoshop etc) but haven’t really progressed much yet.
43. My AFL teams came last (Port Power and Gold Coast Suns).
44. My LFL team didn’t even play (Dallas Desire).
45. I still don’t know what the difference between League and Union is.
46. Probably watched a total of 10mins of commercial television.
47. Attempted to save a duckling on the shores of Lake Wanaka.
48. As usual thought about getting more tatts but stalled ‘due to cost’.
49. Kept in touch with old friends as best I could, and made some good new ones too.
50. Realised my favourite superheroes are The Phantom and Robocop.
Falling asleep to the sound of waves…
What are your favourite sounds to go to sleep to?
Some people like pure silence.
Not me. Silence is like a tomb. Or being frozen like Han Solo. It’s like getting ‘the silent treatment.’
Masters of going within and being in the Now might argue that silence allows one to reflect more deeply on the body, but I’m usually too tired to reflect deeply on my body.
I actually prefer the sounds of Thrash Metal or Technical Death Metal to calm my soul.
When questioned on this, the best explanation I can come up with is that it’s a thought breaker or pattern breaker, kind of like white noise or a palette cleanser for the brain. Listening to aggressive music to go to sleep has other advantages, especially when sharing a room with someone who snores – “Sorry I snore I hope you don’t mind”. …”That’s OK, I listen to songs about Ancient Egypt.”
I also enjoy sleeping while I can hear someone else working. This takes me back to my childhood when I would hear my parents vacuuming and cleaning the house as I slept. Nothing instils a sense of peace quite like knowing that someone else has it all under control. This includes the sound of trucks rolling down the highway.
The sounds of the city tease me. Why am I here sleeping when I should be out there living??
The sounds of the jungle fill me with primal urges.
But my favourite sound to go to sleep to is that of waves against the shore – which can soothe a busy mind or inspire a brain locked in tedium.
Good night.
The best fantasy worlds
Five of my favourite destinations in imaginationland:
Middle Earth (The Lord Of The Rings)
As far as fantasy fiction goes, Middle Earth is the benchmark. I know scholars of literature will be able to point out the derivative elements, but the pure impact the world has had on the genre of fantasy is hard to overstate. Orcs, goblins, elves, wizards, hobbits….so many elements continue to crop up. The world places the race of Men at a crossroads, and highlights good and bad points of humanity in the alternative races.
Krynn (Dragonlance Chronicles)
The world of Krynn owes a lot to Middle Earth but brings in the folklore of dragons and gods (Gods of any sort is interestingly absent in Middle Earth). Krynn introduces new races such as Kender which are basically derived from hobbits wit a few quirks, and Draconians – evil dragon-like creatures bound in service to the Queen of Darkness. The Dragonlance Chronicles strongly match Advanced Dungeons & Dragons gameplay. Krynn has three moons.
Discworld
The Discworld rests on the back of four elephants, who in turn stand on the back of a giant space turtle. Probably the most complete fantasy world there is, I think there is more Discworld literature and associated products (maps etc) than for any other fantasy world. What could easily be dismissed as a parody on the fantasy genre has developed over at least twenty years into a world heaving with characters and stories – all laden with incredible humour and poignant observations on our actual world.
Warhammer 40k
My introduction to this world was via the board game ‘Space Crusade’. Space Marines are tough guys who worship The Emperor and kill Orks and agents of Chaos. The wear massive armour and wield bolters and chainswords. This is the world responsible for all the Games Workshop stores, where the coolest kids in school paint little Space Marines and Orks, then put them on a table and pretend they are fighting. I’m going to do that shit all day when I am old.
Dark Sun (AD&D campaign world)
A planet blasted to bits by magic and left an inhospitable desert, this world takes classic fantasy and adds insect people, psionics, global warming and water shortages. It’s an AD&D world so there are plenty of books to read about this place. It’s tough and mean, not a place for wimps and/or posers.
The Game Of Thrones world will be a contender once I’ve read all the books.
What are your favourites?
An example of Fake Metal
I do not enjoy Fake Metal.
It has many different ingredients that you might think would result in True Metal.
These ingredients include:
- intro scene in high school
- hot school teacher
- plenty of guitar work
- the word ‘Death’
- the word ‘Metal’
Unfortunately it misses the mark as a whole for me. In the words of one of my favourite tv characters ‘let me break it down for you:’
1, Real metal bands never include the lyrics like ‘doggy doo’.
2. Real metal bands don’t explain how they are better than everyone else, they display it.
3. Real metal bands don’t need to call and name particular acts as being lame for a whole song.
4. Real metal bands don’t hate on gays because being gay is metal.
5. This fails because it attempts to generate some sort of ‘us and them’ mentality yet will not fool any true Metal Warriors out there.
Morningside to Moorooka
So one of the challenges of laying down a personal challenge to write a blog entry every day for seven days is…you have to write something every day.
So, from the back seat of a taxi heading to Moorooka, here are my thoughts, direct to you via iPhone.
- I miss the pie cart in Adelaide, meat pies with green pea soup, vinegar and tomato sauce is the best.
- Dads possess great wisdom, even more potent when delivered from behind a great white beard.
- I dislike excessive cultural homogeneity (not sure of spelling). Let’s celebrate diversity.
- Australia needs a new Ian Rilen.
- Dumber is sometimes funner.
Good night.
Seven inspirational bald men
There must be at least one thousand inspirational bald men on the earth, here are seven;
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Yul Brenner
I didn’t realise cowboys could have no hair until I saw this guy.
According to wikipedia - Brynner’s shaved head was very unusual at the time, and his striking appearance helped to give him an iconic appeal.
He had four wives.
Angry Anderson
I got to play ‘We can’t be beaten’ on the back of a truck in front of a couple of hundred bikies with this Aussie legend.
Love this quote from wikipedia -“Aussies use their fists” when they fight and “weapons were introduced by other cultures”
Bruce Willis
Die Hard. Pulp fiction. GI Joe. These are just some of the movies Bruce Willis has starred in.
Peter Garrett
He went to school in Hornsby.
Fronted a tough rock band, one of the best live bands I’ve ever seen.
Got into politics and I wish more people with life experience managed to do the same.
One of the craziest most elite dance styles ever, like some sort of albino voodoo priest in the throes of demonic possession.
Seth Godin
A very smart man who has written some of my favourite books ever.
He replied to an email from me once – sort of like hearing from my own version of Elvis.
Junior Soprano
For anyone who doesn’t know, Uncle Junior is a character in the TV series ‘The Sopranos’. When I am old I am going to get the same style of glasses.
Best quote -“You heard about the Chinese godfather? He made them an offer they couldn’t understand.”
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
It’s difficult to even attempt to describe how awesome Gandhi is in a few sentences so I won’t even try. They should make a movie about his life.
Getting from A to B
I spent the morning talking to one of the most creative people I know – the one and only Tom Ireland aka Lilac Provider aka White Zulu about the frustrations of being non-prolific, not sharing the art you feel inside.
We agreed that not making music and doing cool things is not much fun. Especially once you have tasted the sweet taste of success. For me it feels no different to being overweight. The answer is exercise, which is easier said than done.
The urge to create is an interesting thing, founded in the idea on non-acceptance of what is, and the desire to connect and transmit emotion with people.
It’s also sometimes pretty tough, requiring huge levels of arrogance and/or passion to actually bring to the world something that is, in fact, probably not really needed.
Self motivating to create something out of nothing is tricky and I have huge respect for those that do, many of whom I consider my closest friends.
The discussion made me consider the emptiness of my own website, which has had scarce attention from me for some time…
In fact for the last year Facebook has become a substitute for my own website.
The reasons seem to make sense:
- My friends are on facebook and they are who my website is for
- I haven’t delivered a lot in the way of new musical content to share, which was why I set up this site in the first place
- It’s ridiculously easy to update a status or make a comment, rather than write a post
So why not shut up and use facebook?
- I propose that the ease of posting and connecting actually promotes laziness; rather than building a thought and creating something cool, the creative spark is satisfied with a few lines
- I don’t own facebook, and one day it could just disappear (this is one of the main reasons I encourage people who are active/funny/engaging on facebook to actually start a blog)
So…I’m about to attempt to reverse my trend of facebooking only, and rediscover the joys of taking a few minutes each day to write something for the few close people in my life who will enjoy the read.
I will start with a 7 day goal, because 7 is my favourite number. One post per day.
Perhaps this small step will be the rock that starts an avalanche.
That is all.
Peace and love.
“Hands of Orlac” – song by Orlac Wizard
A cunning Wizard from the future possesses the hands of a gifted rapper and makes plans to take over the world. (sound quality is reduced for youtube, full quality track available here)
With my hands I direct and inspect
Hammer a nail or cradle an insect
I can plan
Make demands with the pen, again and again
Start with a blank page, finish at the end
Are you a friend or foe?
Cause my hands don’t know
They keep moving even though my brain says ‘NO!’
I keep thinking bout the train tracks every day
And how that motherfuckin train took my hands away
Yeah
That’s right, that’s what I’m talking about
I’m talking about my hands, I’m talking about my hands
With my hands I can save you
With my hands I can enslave you
With my hands I can thrill you
With my hands I can kill you
Deep in the desert driven mad, held underground
The sound of the blood in my vains brings pain
And anxiety – every day
My hands
They wanna do evil things, evil things, evil things
Strangers now to the sensations of ivory instead exaggerating all the hatred inside of me
My hands
In my tower I create potions that give me power
To bring pure love or manifest pure hate
I travel through time and create
Beats and lyrics and rhymes and chords to cause effects
Extreme power and wealth
Responsibility
I’ve got to be strong so these hands don’t get the best of me
I’ve got to be strong so these hands don’t get the best of me
That’s right, that’s what I’m talking about
I’m talking about my hands, I’m talking about my hands
With my hands I can save you
With my hands I can enslave you
With my hands I can thrill you
With my hands I can kill you