little fish...

J is doing a counselling course at the moment & told me about this exercise they did the other day. Each person had to make up a fairy tale, & then they'd all tell their fairy tales & the woman running the workshop would 'analyse' their fairytales for how they might represent parallells in the persons life.

Anyhow, J made her fairytale up around this fishpond that she has created in our garden which has been a bastard to keep going cos the fish either: (a) get eaten (b) mysteriosly disappear or (c) die. Anyhow, something is obviously terrorising them (I suspect the neighbours cat....grrrr...) cos they are the most timid little things, & won't waft gently through the carefully placed pondweed & lillies, being pleasant to the eye as goldfish are supposed to do. Instead they do hyperspeed missions from under their rock shelters to zip out & get food or burn off nervous energy before returning to the safety of their rocky caves (Afghani rebel style).

Anyhow, J's fairytale concerned the fishpond where the fish were unhappy and not living as fish should. When it came to 'assessment' time the woman drew some pretty hasty parallells ala "So, you don't like it when people don't do as you ask?" followed by "Does this fishpond really exist?". J contains frustration at this ridiculous overanalysis (through gritted teeth) : "look it's just a story about a real fishpond that really exists, it doesn't mean anything"...

This didn't dissuade The Assessor...J was grilled about her poor old fishpond for another 5 minutes. Maybe 'well, there was once a lovely princess...' would have gone down much better !

The lapsed vegetarian blues...

Yeah, I'll admit it - I've lapsed...after about 15 years of vegetarianism, I have gone to 'the dark side' & been eating my animal brethren (well, aquatic brethren) for the last 3 years. I now fall under that horrible label of 'Vegequarian' - which is just too corny for words. But, I'm not without guilt tho' - the perverse thing is that my main fish eating is tinned tuna - & yellowtail & bluefin tuna are endangered species - how crap is that? So, yes, I am contributing to the global demise of these poor creatures...one tasty tin at a time...

The sad thing is that I can't imagine giving up the fish & reverting to my former flesh free status. I'd be better off eating organic chicken in terms of having less impact on the environment...but just don't like that idea. I was hooking into some trashy chinese a few days ago (garlic king prawns) & kept thinking 'yep, 15 kgs of bycatch died for this (very tasty) dish'...guilty as charged.

Kiss the bottle/uncontrollable urge...

Hey! Got the Bluebottle Kiss 'Somnambulist homesick blues' ep the other day (thank you Ben)....brilliant! This hasn't been around for ages & has the wonderful 'Generic teen' on it...if I was vaguely clever I would have a mp3 on here, but you'll just have to miss out in that regard, altho they've got a video for it on the bands website...check it out, plus all their other stuff too - one of the few current bands I actually like! They're playing in Byron next week - should be great...one of the (on average) 3 gigs that I go to annually...bring it on...

Oh yeah, got a message from a friend (Hi Luci) about a band she is in called The Uncontrollables. They're from Berlin & have an interest in beards, facial hair & some cool music, if their post on myspace is anything to go by. Some recent pics from their last gig can be found here. Bring on the bearded revolution!

lunchtime at skool...

Conversation between me & The Kid:

Me: So, how's school going?
The Kid: Pretty good...but there's one boy who was a bit silly today.
Me: Oh? Why what happened?
The Kid: Well..we were all sitting having our lunch, & he came up & pretended to wee into all our lunchboxes...
Me: ..Oh...

crush, kill,destroy...

Have spent the last 2 days following an excavator around as it uproots trees, looking for Koalas & any other potential wildlife casualties, with the most methodical excavator driver in the world. This guy was pedantic to the extreme! Each tree had to be neatly stacked & aligned - any aberrant branches were quickly twisted off...while I waited annoyed trying to get the guy to hurry the hell up...and woe betide if an Ironbark got in the way - any Ironbarks were ruthlessly hunted down & felled, adding to my foot-tapping frustration. But Paul was not a man to be hurried, especially by some young impudent upstart like myself who obviously had no idea about the art of tree removal. So, Paul, I salute yr methodical ways & I'm sure yr lawn is neatly mowed & all leaves raked as well...

Finished up at 5, drove screamingly home by 9, Hungry Jacks vegieburgers on the way...tragic I know...

The world suffers but are you happy?

The above has been scratched into wet concrete near my work, maybe a good 10 or so years ago, & is the sole dissident outcry in quiet little Alstonville...where are you now silent graffitist, & are you happy?

Making me happy on another note is some of the recent great postings of old obscure Australian punk stuff (Razar, Fun Things, Victims) on 7 inch punk - a great mp3 blog which is pretty damn good for old nostalgic fools such as myself...check it out! I'd put it as a link on the side, but that bit of bloggy cleverness I haven't been able to figure out yet...in time, in time...

...and also rating high on the happiness index is the release of 'Look both ways' on DVD. This a bloody good film & worth seeing all over again...nice animation, good story, low on saccharine moments, & unashamedly no bullshit...good use of a cool Gersey song too in the soundtrack. The nice thing about the DVD is that are also very few 'extras' - no bullshit outtakes, directors commentary, interview with the main actors left kidney etc etc ...ie. no filler or fluff. My only gripe with this film is 'the rain scene'...but use of rain in films (& songs) is worth a post in itself...something to fill in on another day...

the day the music died...

Saw possibly the most cringe-inducing moment on TV in a long time over the w/end. Watched the Grammys for a while & watched amusedly as a pastiche of footage about blues masters and hip hop legends was screened...then we get a live ('legendary' may have been the word used!) performance from the modern inheritors of these crowns...enter Jay - Z and the singer from Linkin Park! I watch speechless & aghast...& then when it seems like things can't get any more vomit-inducing, into the set strolls (Sir) Paul Mcartney & they launch into a Beatles song....sheesh! Execrable is too kind a word for this shit! Poor old Jay-Z was a bit left out, what with (Sir) Paul & Mr. Linkin duetting up a storm, so he just lingered on stage & threw in a few "Huh"'s, & '"That's right!"'s too keep the whole thing moving along...One of the more sordid performances to grace a stage I have ever had the pleasure of witnessing...

In a jar...

Saw 'Jarhead' the other night...not bad, but not great either...I think I can safely say that I will probably never think about it again, but that gets me thinking, can a war movie actually be memorable or good? It's a pretty damn limiting medium, & please, any future film makers - spare me the barking sargeant major bullshit, haven't we been there already? Anyhow, the thing I liked about the film is how it more or less points out that war is actually pretty damn boring (although how that translates into an 'anti war message' as is ascribed to this film, I'm unsure)...it's like war 'lite' for the slacker generation basically (you get to show all the bravado & testosterone - y swaggering without actually having to do anything!). 'Three Kings' pulls more political punches & is a better film - see that on video instead. Nice use of Nirvanas 'something in the air' in the soundtrack tho'...haven't heard this for a long long time...

...and finally

...and finally, had a discussion with S who was up on the weekend about bands/artists who are easily hated. My most easily hated would have to be:

• Bono (probably topping many a list like this)
• Sting
• 50 cent or any of his ilk
• The doors
• Aerosmith
• Eric Clapton
• Simon & Garfunkel (had the displeasure of hearing this drift across from our neighbours place last week...scarey!)
• The 'new' roots - ala Jack Johnson etc...

Easy targets I know, but if they're down, I'm firing...

intelligent design & the schoolyard scene...

Oh yeah! I've just accomplished what any bright 7 year old kid could probably do - ie. actually put a few links on this page...consider the air punched in triumph! The luddite conquers...

Speaking of kids...The Kids reports of the first weeks at school have been pretty good. The canteen gets a big thumbs up (chocolate milk & pizza are the chosen gourmet items), as does rolling hula hoops down the steps at lunchtime - simple pleasures! Thumbs down goes to a bossy kid - pecking order is still being established in the coop. Went & checked out the school on w/end (yeah, I know that sounds bad - I have seen it before...this was a detailed look) - the inside of those portacabins is still the same, but this one has that nice smell of new carpet & general all-round newness...seems good to me. The Kids school (probably like many country schools) seems stuck in the early 80's or maybe late 70's!!! Some of the teachers aides etc I can recall from my schooldays! (And yes, I have discovered the joys of italics)...

the sound of swords clashing...

Back from lunch in the park with ants crawling all over me...not pleasant. Well, a week has passed, & so much has (not) happened - survived a parental visit, had a brief zoom on Ballina waterslides, a swim in the waterhole & here I am...

Picked up a copy of 'Hegemony or survival' - Chomsky's latest book the other day...reading Chomsky always makes me feel so damn depressed, & it flares up my anti-american-o-meter by about a thousand %... Surprising though how easily we forget this stuff...we get outraged in hindsight, & quietly too...

The pace is glacial...

Well I can feel a lot happier in life going to the grave knowing that I've had the pleasure of fondling a Wollemi pine....altho it wasn't quite in the remote gorges of Wollemi National Park, but rather 30 cm high and on a reception desk in the wilds of Ballina...ach well, it's the experience right?

While on the subject of things green & growing I also now have the pleasure of my old crappy lawn mower actually working - & this thing is now an unstoppable death machine! What is it about lawn mowing that is such a pleasure? Those long, neat symmetrical strips, the smell of cut grass, the tang of 2-stroke, the joy of instant cause and effect? I used to be a lawn mower by trade in Sydney & in hindsight don't feel I appreciated the finer pleasures of the job....give me a property with a good sized slab of luxuriant grass & a ride on & I'll be very happy...simple pleasures.

Bring on the weekend....

Drinking beer in the office in air-con comfort...this is good! But the weekend beckons...starting with a waterhole swim this arvo with J & The Kid. But now after the beer I feel that inevitable craving for Kettle chips (or those other yuppie-esque ones) - what is it about that combination of alcohol, fat and salt that is so alluring? Hmmm...

I am not a geek...

OK, well while i'm posting away (is 3 posts on one day 'allowed' under blogging ettiquette? does it indicate alarming over-enthusiasm or an embarrasing need to be heard by strangers?) i should make a few things clear:

• i have very few computer skills, so this site will probably be one of the least interactive blogs around (maybe the least!)...i'm having trouble even getting up a link here! (& that damn 'Google news' link is so far proving un-deletable...)
• i have no tolerance for those damn emoticons & the winking colon/parenthese combination will NOT be gracing these pages in any form
• i have no knowledge of this blog game...so any feedback would be welcome....many thanks to beth from Miaowthecat for unleashing the blog world on me...if i can manage it there will be a link to her site somewhere, sometime...
• there might be a photo on here one day...

Thought Criminals

Why can't I be in Sydney this weeked? Times like this, the lack of North Coast band culture (djembe workshop anyone?) shows up as very lacking...

Anyhow on this Saturday at the Annandale in Sydney the Thought Criminals hit the stage for the first time in 25 years!!! While re-union shows can be pretty dicey, somehow i just get the feeling that this one would be damn good! The Thought Crims were around in the late 70's & put out a few cool eps (now impossibly rare & insanely expensive) & an album "Speed, madness and flying saucers" (which I'm lucky enough to have the ex-JJ copy of - $2 too!) that were catchy, quirky & just damn good! All this stuff has just been re-issued now too as the "Chronological" anthology. You can hear songs & read history on the bands website. Why is this important 25 years on? Would a Dragon re-union be worthy of such excitement? Well, no because Dragon plainly sucked & contributed very little to musical history, while the Thoughties (as they are annoyingly known) are known throughout the globe as pioneering punk rock legends! ...disclaimer: I recognise nostalgia can be a dangerous thing sometimes...

day zero...

...the day that blog # 875757458858482086 is unleashed upon an uncaring world...yep, more digital waste/frass/excess for folk to consume/ignore or sneer at!

Things going on:

• The Kid begins school (yesterday actually)
• Nothing at all going on at my work
• J has interview today

Surprised to make it thru the night actually...for some reason a delicate balance of recent rainfall, stillness and quiet humidity (can humidity be quiet? yes!) has resulted in an orgy of mosquitos within the house. Needed to actually deploy the hated mozzie net, & even then could hear roving packs of the hungry buggers zooming around, scoping for blood. The ceiling was covered in small whining black crosses, altho i was particularly glad to see some of them did end up in the spider webs that due to laziness i had not removed...