don't think too hard...

So there's a state election coming up...

To help with the difficult decision-making process that accompanies compulsory voting, here's a quick and easy solution which takes all the intellectual labour out of voting: the Australian Politics Test!! Just answer fifty easy questions and the quiz will tell you which political party best suits your needs!

Here's my results [I'm not ashamed to share]...

womp bop a loo la

Welcome to the anonymous world of the blog... where anyone can attack you and it may be a friend being very funny, a friend who is in no way funny - or a "rabid random"...

Who am I quoting? Well, my munchkin friend has a secret admirer... or a secret attacker... or a secret messing-with-your-mind-how-funny-person.

Some of which is a little funny - because munckin [aka wompy, if you're trying to follow this thread] can delete these comments - but now she's had to switch on blog comment moderation and is screening MY comments. damn. that's frustrating.

It's also frustrating if you're a new comment-maker - for example, if you're mezerae [which i love. this should be your handle forever, it suits you. and henceforth, i shall steal this inspiration from wompy, call you mezerae, pretend i thought of it myself... and from this day forward thou shalt be known as mezerae and you're a virgin-blog-contributor and your first ever comment is "moderated"... ooh, what next, the thought police? Poor Miss Lin had no choice... but if we work together we can overcome this... but if we change our way of life, then the blogerists have won!

I want you to feel welcome mezerae... and loved...and free to join in the messiness and the ranting and the fun! [and the lack of punctuation too - embrace it]... and all you other [friends and randoms] who read but don't comment...

so reveal yourself mystery blog-comment-maker... your reign of terror has meant that all of us god-fearing, law-abiding citizens of the blogosphere are having our civil liberties, our inherent rights and freedoms, eroded because we want to feel safe inside the borders of our blogging world. we want sovereignty over our blogs, we don't want you coming in here and blowing up innocent civilians because of your fundamentalist-anonymous-commenting disregard for rules and traditions and borders and...

oh. wait. perhaps some of that was misdirected. perhaps i'm channeling some other frustration here. but please... reveal yourself, so that miss lin [aka wompy aka munchkin... follow those handles] can revoke the Atishoo! Atishoo! Patriot Act and we can all get back to the way things were. the good old days, when you didn't lock your screen door at night and our kids and the neighbours kids played cricket together on the road. ah. the good old days.

ok so i haven't slept for a while. but i stand by my rant. a womp bam boo

I said, are you listening?

Laura at the Spanish Club Saturday 20 May 2006

If you're a member of an instrumental post-rock band do you come to loathe and detest both the phrase 'instrumental' and the phrase 'post-rock'? Do you get over it? I wonder...

Laura's return gig was on fire. New stuff, old stuff, stunning visuals. Impressive.

I've been going to see them play for a few years now... as they've moved up the bill to headline, the crowds have gotten bigger, the venues more spacious, and live they're getting smoother and tighter, with that tradmark 'wall of sound' growing ever more dense and complex. If you haven't caught them yet, you won't get a better 11:00 show for $10. Keep your eyes open.

Lior at the Corner Hotel Sunday 21 May 2006

And now for something completely different...



I've seen Lior play a few times over the summer and last night he was on with full band including strings, which was a treat. Last time he'll air the music from Autumn Flow before the new album in time for summer festival season. And? We'll the old stuff was smooth, the new stuffy messy. He was engaged and great fun, but over it from about half way through. You can tell this is the end of an ongoing tour for this album - in the faces of the band who looked like they'd relish the chance to play something other than silly 'Diego and the Village Girl'.

That said - Grey Ocean, Building Ships and Bedouin Song silenced the audience completely. You've got to give the man points for that kind of charismatic performance.

better now than never...

so.

Thursday, 11 May 2006: Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals @ Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne



I must admit I was a little dubious. While I've been a fan for a long time, and Ben's set at Myer Music Bowl [with Jack Johnson] a few years ago rocked my world... I've been less than impressed by Both Sides of the Gun. It's just... dull.

But live BHIC didn't fail to deliver. The stadium was full though I don't think sold out, and songs that sort of whimper and moan on the cd were absolutely cracking live. We got enough back-catalogue to keep us happy, too: Forever, Glory and Consequence, Another Lonely Day, Roses From My Friends, Burn One Down, Steal My Kisses, Walk Away come to mind.

The very wholesome, wide-eyed American Scott from Ringside played cute, non-offensive background music in support. Nothing to write home about [and yet here I am, posting about it...]

You come out of a Ben Harper gig a little elated after lifting your hands and chanting 'I believe in a better way'; a little disturbing after witnessing three ladies/fainting/passing out/having a fit of some unidentified description in general admission right near you; and remembering what a live "stadium" show is all about.

Saturday 13 Mayv 2006. The Whitlams @ The Corner Hotel, Melbourne




What is there to say about Tim Freedman? Give me a minute...

Kate Miller-Heidke was nothing of not surprising in support. Take a classically-trained opera singer, give her a Sarah Blasko-esque Australian accent and nymph-like quality, put her in the latest indie style with a retro high-waisted floral print dress and belt, get her to sing unpredictable songs about Australian Idol, and then imbue her entire performance with a cabaret, musical-theatre reminiscent theatrical touch. You will not come away disappointed.

As with the Whitlams. Little Cloud really does represent a return to their Eternal Nightcap 'good old days'... the kind of beauty that we saw glimpses of in "Blow Up the Pokies" and the fun from "Royal in the Afternoon", combined with the half-drink shouting-at-the-end-of-the-night irreverance of "I Will Not Go Quietly". It certainly wasn't the tightest performance we've ever seen [most obvious on the new stuff] but there's something about it that leaves you just a little happy. A little sad. Whatever. Tim Freedman, live, is what music is about.

you have visited 12 countries (5%)

Gee thanks for this Scotland.


create your own visited countries map


Boy do I feel inadequate. But hey, I'm an Australian. It takes me 22 hours to get anywhere. That's got to count for something hey guys? Guys?

Chipping away...

It's a moody day in Melbourne.

Wet, hail, wind and cold.

Perfect reason to stay at my desk and write.



Slowly, slowly.

So maybe I screamed a little bit...

OK. I've been sick, and a little tired, so I took today off from all forms of offical or organised activities [study, work, and kind of social life] and esentially read in front of the tv on the couch. Just what I needed.

Then tonight I thought I'd finish off the day by relaxing a little more in front of a movie, then sleep.

The movie I chose? Well, Carrie was on foxtel so I thought "classic seventies thriller, sounds good"...



Yes well - constant references to God, the Devil, telekenetic powers, emotional abuse, and of course the spectacular pig's blood. Creepy, tense atmosphere throughout. Dark, dark angles and frames and lighting and sets. Oddly wonderul bit-part by a very young looking John Travotla. Entirely fruitcake religoius-nut-sexually-oppressed mother.

And Sissy Spacek. Wow. She's just odd-looking all the way through, and you're utterly petrified of her and at the same time feel so sorry for her - in a way, you can COMPLETELY sympathise with what leads her to massacre half of her school in a blaze of [you guessed it] pig's blood, high-pressure hoses and scorching soaring flames.

Carrie made me squirm in my seat - the eerie soundtrack [thanks to Psycho], and the way Spacek was cute-mousy-teased-girl one minute and blood-covered-eye-bulging-creature-of-Satan the next.
This is the kind of slightly-dated still petrifiying "horror movie" you don't want to admit to being scared of. But can't help it.

Loved it. Don't know how I'm going to sleep though.