From Christmas... Jamie Oliver fans will know this one: cut up and de-stone a bunch of fruit, drizzle with brandy (or in this case port) and then sprinkle generously with your vanilla sugar (made with real vanilla beans). Bake for about 10 minutes, serve with marscapone mixed with some more of the sugar. Yum!

Labels: photo

Pretty funny really, since I don't own a bible and haven't read one in about fifteen years. Plenty of those questions were ridiculously obvious, some were a little tricky. I guess the Lutheran primary school did get some stuff into my brain after all. I mostly just remember that the bible was the "good news bible" (no shit) pages were really thin and smelled funny (not bad, sort of woody/nutty). That and nearly every page had a footnote to the effect of "that bit's our best guess, it could mean one of five contradictory things - Hebrew unclear". I've never quite understood why knowing the order of the books was meant to be virtuous - bibles have a table contents people, get over it ;)

Labels: meme

Eventful: Demand The Cure in Sydney, New South Wales, AUS. Apparently the band are keeping an eye on these things. Go vote!

This amused me on several levels. As an aside, you want views on flickr? Tag a photo with 'naked' ;)

Also: lj:photographers.

Labels: photo

• urban_decay: mitte, berlin, germany
• photographers: (green leaves on blue)
• New Years Day 2007 - a photoset on Flickr (photos of the fireworks - we watched from the other side of the bridge, but it was still spectacular)
• photographers: Canoe in the Park
• ru_stickers: (flying ps2 controller)
• ru_stickers: shark-o-phone)
• photographers: More Cats! (cat sez: stitch this, jimmy)
• urban_decay: East Hastings Street, Vancouver

Labels: photos

• drjon: There can be only one (M&M battle).
• Wired 8.07: Welcome to Sealand. Now Bugger Off. (Sealand is currently for sale)
• http://youtube.com/watch?v=7Kd-beTSdkQ: This video has been removed at the request of copyright owner NBC Universal because its content was used without permission. On the one hand, fair enough - it's their content after all. On the other hand, nobody's seeing their content. Instead of watching some funny stuff with an NBC logo on it, I just sort of think NBC are dicks. That'd be the tension of Web 2.0MFG, right there...
• Race row rocks Open | Herald Sun: A VIOLENT clash between rival Serb and Croat supporters has rocked the opening day of the Australian Open at Melbourne Park. Violence at the tennis, eh. Something to remember next time someone claims that it's only football fans who are hooligans.
• The Whiteboard, a vaguely paintball webcomic by "Doc" Nickel - 2006-09-13
• Beware: Nissan pr0n ahead. ZCAR.COM | Car Talk Forum - Yowzaa...Nismo fest pics 56k no-no. I'll have one of each Skyline R34. Hell, throw in a Z.
• Beyond Bruce: 2006 BMW Sauber F1 Steering Wheel - Jalopnik. Bloody hell.
• This was sent to me with the email subject "cute but useless": works_PC GADGET. I mention it mostly because it sparked the following conversation...

  Andrew K. says:

  OMFG!!! I must have one!!!

  heretic says:

  heheheheh i'm thinking of people who wouldn't know what to do if they came back to their workstation to find it being humped....

  Andrew K. says:

  no really, i MUST have one... I'm looking at the site now trying to work it out ;)

  heretic says:

  hahahahahah

  heretic says:

  i'm thinking of using the same basic setup for band-specific headbanging dudes

  heretic says:

  that would be awesome!

  Andrew K. says:

  indeed!

  heretic says:

  although for early chilli peppers you'd need the kiedis figure's head to revolve, for the long-hair whirlwind effect

  heretic says:

  the henry rollins figure would actually break your computer

  Andrew K. says:

  and it's neck would be the thickest part

  heretic says:

  hahaha

  heretic says:

  iggy pop would be hinged from the ankles

  Andrew K. says:

  ..and marilyn manson would just twitch randomly every once in a while

  heretic says:

  ahahhahaahah

  heretic says:

  shoegazer bands like curve would have no moving parts

  Andrew K. says:

  "Caution: contains no moving parts"

  heretic says:

  hehe

  heretic says:

  emo bands would be the same

  heretic says:

  pop will eat itself would jump up and down in the classic pogo

• Cha Cha - human-assisted search results.
• Aussie broadband a 'disgrace' | The Courier-Mail: AUSTRALIA'S internet infrastructure is a 'disgrace' which the Federal Government must fix, News Corporation chairman and chief executive Rupert Murdoch said yesterday. ... 'We're being left behind and we'll pay for it,' he warned.
• Tokyo Plastic (flash). Pretty (yeah that's it). Have a look at 'music box' under 'bits and pieces'.
• From the culture that brought us 1984 and Brazil: http://www.signs-of-the-times.org/signs/pods/watchful_eyes.jpg
• UnitedVisualArtists - Volume at the V&A. Awesome installation. Absolutely awesome. I'd love to see this set up to use the EQ off MP3 players - let random people plug in their ipods...
• ...and this one just for the headline: Paris Hilton: Still Dumber Than Shit - Jalopnik.

It's so hardcore where I live, people grow the green right on the street :P Seriously, that's parsley in a street planter box. I assume some enterprisingly council worker realised it grows well and it's cheap. Pity they didn't grow basil!

Labels: photo

Molly put out a challenge to Twitter in haiku for 24 hours. I didn't keep it going for the entire 24 hours, but I did write a few haiku. These were all Twittered in the past 36 hours or so.

returning from lunch
email vies for attention
yet i twitter first

twenty-four hours long
creative jam from molly
can we keep this up?

apple glitz and glam
reality check required
for iphone mania

squealing macbook pros
malarkey's third degree burns
never buy gen one!

change freeze is lifted
launch storm blows in at gale force
servers slowing down

my experience:
macs crash like any other
i get evil ones

i must admit it
osx is better, but
not enough to switch

twitter 404
not the funniest ever
but still amusing

aircon up so high
the cold seeps in through my shoes
meeting in "the fridge"

* The Mac-related posts were a response to people telling me to buy a Mac, unprovoked as far as I can remember! The OSX comment, in context, referred to it being better than previous versions of MacOS.

Labels: haiku, poetry

The Magic Pipe (and smoke machine/incense). A tower of galvanised steel pipe, bass strings, pickups and triggers.

Don't even know where to begin here.

The Magic Boot. Seriously. It has a plug in the heel and pickups inside. He plays the sole of the boot by tapping and scratching it.

There are more pics on flickr.

Labels: photo

Ooh, you're a dark one. Sitting in the corner, singing to yourself, playing with matches and twitching. Most of the time you instinctively avoid company, and if you're forced into close proximity, things do not go well. You can probably stop stabbing that teddybear now. It's not going anywhere.
What's your malfunction?

[Also: kudos to the creators of this one, for providing standards-friendly markup (albeit not quite perfect, hence standards-friendly and not -compliant). Yes, I am quite aware of just how geeky I am, but thanks for noticing! :)]

Labels: meme

[Started writing this coming up to NYE...]

It's been a hell of a year. It has in fact been so big I really only remember the last six months. The first six months are just kind of a blur. Here's an attempt at a recap...

• Moved to Sydney, which included:
  • interstate job interviews and negotiations
  • quitting at Griffith after six years
  • moving interstate for the first time
  • driving long distance for the first time
• Spoke at Web Directions South, which rocked and included:
  • catching up with wonderful people i met last year
  • meeting heaps of new people; and even managing to remember a few names ;)
  • the surreal experience of seeing your own name written on the wall/program/website/etc.
• Continued postgrad study:
  • only did Semester I, Sem II was deferred on the off chance of moving interstate.
  • that one subject had us running a full day symposium, which unexpectedly gained John Allsopp as the keynote. That rocked and was actually an interesting day, despite all the work.
  • got another 7.
• An old friendship broke down, which sucked. I miss them a lot.
• Also lost contact with some other friends, which sucked. I miss them too.
• Moving has initiated an ongoing "purge of useless shit":
  • We discovered that things which seemed important instantly get binned when faced with the prospect of paying to move them 1000km.
  • So far we've taken three carloads of stuff to vinnie's this year. Two in Brisbane, one down here. When I say carloads, I mean as much as an Impreza 5-door can fit. On two loads the car was too full for a passenger - I went on my own.
  • With every useless bit of crap that gets binned (or potentially useful thing that gets donated) I feel better.
• There must have been some gigs in there somewhere, but I really don't remember any. Weird.
  • ...actually there was the Silhouette Series at the Powerhouse in Brisbane. Tycho Brahe, Ponyloaf, Replikant, Victor XRay. All good.
• Holiday to Melbourne in April! Jeez, how do you forget something like that? Big year I guess.
  • Lots of comedy shows, we went during the comedy festival
  • Lots of food
  • Lots of shopping
• Went to the NRL Grand Final with Dad, saw the Broncos win. That's about as good as it gets for a footy fan :)

OK... I'm sure there was more but I can't really think of it (or can't really post it), so I think I'll just post this and be done! ;)

Labels: year in review

Snarfed from colinmo. Making a movie soundtrack from your music collection...

1. Open your mp3 library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, shortwave radio from Eastern Europe)
2. Put it on shuffle (or random or whatever else it gets called)
3. Press play
4. For every section of the movie, type the song that's playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
6. Don't lie and try to pretend you're cool

Ok, let's give this a try. I have been told I have notably ecclectic taste so this could get interesting.

1. Opening title: Timo Maas - Schieber 1 (off Music for the Maases)[easy paced dancy track]. Not such a bad opener, really. Builds up with some interesting tones and samples. We could do an intro like the one from Romeo Must Die.
2. Waking up: Morphine - A Head With Wings [ballsy saxophone-driven blues/rock sound]. Must be waking up with a hangover. If I'm doing an opening sequence to this track I guess I'm sucking down black coffee and cigarettes then jumping into a really big black american convertible.
3. First day of school: Moby - Machete [high tempo dance with sort of ambient bridges and builds, then some almost tribal distorted lyrics]. Well I guess it seems like an adventure at first.
4. Falling in love: Tea Party - Coming Home [guitar rock, big vocals]. Heh, interesting if you read the lyrics. Guess I met a cute brunette, hey.
5. Fight song: Tea Party - Luxuria. Huh? Two Tea Party tracks in a row? :) ...and is this a couple fight or a biff?
6. Breaking up: Pollution Volume 3 - Industrial Waste (Remix) [goa trance off Travelling]. From rock to serious bleep action. This is one interesting movie...
7. Prom/High School Formal: Beastie Boys - We Got The. Well that sure would have beaten my real high school formal. Could it be a live show?
8. Life's ok: The Cure - The Holy Hour (Group Home Demo) [this is a very raw demo recording which was re-recorded for an extremely moody album]. Be still gothlings, all is well ;) Well if we started with Morphine it doesn't seem too odd.
9. Mental breakdown: The Cure - Pictures of You. OK, so iTunes "random" isn't. Apparently I'm believing that pictures are real, and I can feel them. Guess it's relatively appropriate! :)
10. Driving: Johann - Same Same But Different [serious psytrance off Imagi:Nations Part 1 - Night]. This is going to be one seriously interesting drive. Get David Lynch in here, or maybe Terry Gilliam.
11. Flashback: Coldplay - Daylight. Not such a bad flashback track.
12. Getting back together: The Doors - Hello, I Love You. Aww :)
13. Wedding: David Bowie - Golden Years. Hmm, that could even happen. Especially considering the ball scene from A Knights Tale that breaks into this track... we've always liked the way they do that. Mostly in an "amused" way.
14. Birth of a child: The Beloved - Sweet Harmony [dreamy chill track off one of the MoS Chillout Sessions]. Cute I guess. Do we have to have a birth? Not in my movie, pal ;)
15. Final battle: Moby - Alone [very long ambient track]. Very slow science fiction dogfight in space maybe? Maybe I'll come back at the end and hit random again [click click... The Prodigy - Speedway. Hmm. I think we're still in some kind of high speed scenario here :)].
16. Funeral song: Minddrive - Soundcheque [big dance track off Ferry Corsten's Global Trancemissions]. Sweet, so it's not a wake it's a rave! There's an awesome idea. Bush doof, glowsticks, midnight burial...
17. Shallow comment: The Future Sound of London - Central Industrial. "Shallow comment"?
18. End credits: Gorillaz - O Green World [crazy sounding electronic/hiphop/something]. Well it certainly caps a weird movie. Did it have a dwarf in it? Maybe it was an art movie.

How did we get all the way through that without any industrial?

Labels: meme

That 1 Guy at The Vanguard, 2007.01.05.

Labels: gig, photo, that 1 guy

Saw That 1 Guy again tonight. I was a little concerned that it wouldn't be quite as much of a knockout as the first time... I needn't have worried :)

It was fantastic. Knowing the show just made it even better. A whole room of people singing along to One (and every other song)... a whole room responding with gusto to his little howls :)

Then we bought the DVD (yeah!!) and Leah got a shirt. At first she wasn't getting a shirt because they only had the same design as the one I've already got. But then the merch lass had a dig around and discovered one of the round print ones!

Then I met That 1 Guy himself:

It was a good night :)

Update: readers from Australia should note he's doings shows around the country including Big Day Out; US readers should note he's touring all over. Check out That 1 Guy tour dates. If he plays near you, you should go. There will be a test afterwards, people! ;)

On another note, yes I know I am desperately overdue for a haircut.

Labels: gig, that 1 guy, the vanguard

water echos thuds
of exploding firework shells
night becoming day

fire erupts from bridge
then more from city buildings
crowds look on in awe

shivers up my spine
as the very city roars
one million cheers

---

At midnight last night we were sitting on bollards on a wharf, right on the water at Pyrmont. We had a view of the bridge, the city and one of the barge launch points (we were close to where I took this photo). There was a real buzz through the crowd - plenty of room for everyone, no stress.

Darling Harbour jumped the gun, then there was a countdown and the main event kicked off. The noise was amazing, if you've ever heard black powder canons being fired that's what it was like.

When the cheer went up I thought I was hearing things... but, I shit you not, you could hear the cheering from the CBD. It echoed between the skyscrapers and around the harbour. One million people come to Sydney for new year's eve and it sounded like they all cheered when the fireworks started.

It was a hell of a show.

Happy new year, all.

Labels: haiku, poetry