Gun in mouth blues...

Shit! What a downer RE: the Socceroos...I am peeved, miffed AND vexed like nearly everyone else in this country...the game was looking so damn good - I had already planned how the penalty shoot out was going to go, but oh the misfotune meted out by the gods passed us up...

The action out our way was at Dorroughby Community Hall (famed for its fierce Table-tennis tournaments every Thursday night)...four of us that didn't reach out & hit the 'snooze' button gathered in front of the telly to don the beany (it was cold!) drink beers, sample Ians horticultural efforts & gesticulate wildly...but to no avail...the drive home was like I was in a dream...did that really happen... (is that pot really that strong?)...It was disappointment on toast in my kitchen at 3.15 am I can tell you...

Speaking of blues...picked up a great CD by the Beasts of Bourbon last week. 'Lowlife' is a live recording taken from 2003 when they re-formed for a few shows, & it is a damn fine thing! Raw, sweaty & full of bile & swagger - this is a great CD. Listen to a few tracks here. I was never much of a 'Beasts' fan when they were around, cos I was in my 'they're either punk, or they suck' stage of life. This CD changes my thinking! I never realised how grunty they were, & I can imagine how great they were live in their heyday (altho I have absolutely no memory of the one gig I did see!). One reviewer has said that any audience at a Beasts gig was in 2 camps - the girls all wanted to fuck Tex, while the guys all wanted to be Tex...Mike can you confirm this for me?

OK...back to work...grrrrr...maybe more coffee is needed. By the way, that will probably be the only post here which mentions sport in any form...

Sue's last ride...

"This is a song about being dead in the back of a car for two weeks, and if yr dead or dying this song is all about you..." So announced Warren Ellis of the Dirty 3 last night before the band ripped into 'Sue's last ride'...

The band were bloody amazing live, & they were actually the dirty 4 tonight cos they had an extra guy playing bass which beefed out the sound a lot...I was surprised at how intense & heavy they can be...Warren Ellis is like a violinist posseessed, shredding bow strings aplenty & flailing around, while Jim White is the drummer from hell...he ain't lost anything since those Venom P Stinger days. The gig was great - a big range of songs, from the furious to the delicate, & folks just lapped it up. Surprisingly (for Byron) there were heaps of people there, & they were into it too! They finished off with a great cover of "Wake up Maggie" by (Rockin') Rod Stewart which got some pretty heavy treatment...fine stuff indeedy!

Got home at 2:47 am to a house that resembled an icebox....pretty damn cold - a 2 doona night...crawled into bed wishing I could listen to it all over again...

Celebrity band name...

Few people can claim to be present when pop-cultural history is made, but I can proudly claim to be one of those few. The year is 1987, and in the busy mind of my good friend Michael Anson, the germ of an idea is forming...a game for those idle moments when you try & combine the name of any band with that of a celebrity...and thus 'Celebrity Band Name' was born. The game was unveiled on a visit to Mike's Kirribilli love shack & due to its instant success was incorporated into many a camping trip when we were all sitting around the fire wishing we'd brought more chocolate...

Some of CBN's finer moments include Bob Hawk(e)wind, Cilla Black Flag, and the Mike's crowning glory - Gerard 'Def Lepard' deu. I haven't thought about this for years, but today on Triple J (I was bored alright!) they were playing 'TV show band name' (e.g. Big Black Brother) & kind of insinuating this kind of kooky thing was a new phenomena...ha! if only they knew the truth...altho, who knows, this game could've been thought up by other bored youth living a parallel existence in Iceland...but my money rests with Mike - the rightful creator of this pop-culture gem...

Now we're in this age of pop-culture reference saturation, CBN now has a rightful place, along with such games as Nathan Barleys 'cock, muff, bumhole' (replacing scissors, rock, paper) or Steve Albini's 'draw an album cover using the very crude Microsoft Word drawing program & get people to guess what it is' (check this out, & loads of other indulgent crap on the Electrical Audio forums, incluiding the perennial favourite 'crap/not crap')...

...memories of the game in its raw infancy are good, oddly enough it always seemed funnier if the celebrity was particularly B-grade, or from a bad Australian TV series (or maybe both!) & the band was as indie &/or onscure as you could get...

...anyhow, Celebrity Band Name, here at dotdotdot yr rightful roots are proudly acknowledged, & all four (4) of you who read this thing are requested to contribute yr best offerrings - hit the comments & hit it hard!

Pray/Prey...

Been busy & distracted = no posts...Lots of stuff has happened in between: a thrash trip to Sydney for my Mum's 70th Birthday bash - at the Pymble Uniting Church Hall, & what a venue it is! I immediately think of creepy battered plastic cups filled with green cordial, but these ghosts of my late 70's/early 80's churchgoing career were nowhere to be seen...thank god! Anyhow, the bash was surprisingly OK...all those weird relatives, cousins etc who I never wanted to talk to were actually kinda interesting to talk to 15 - 20 years on...shessh, maybe I am actually growing up!

Apart from that, been engaging in a big trapping survey for work. Our quarry - the ever elusive Long-nosed potoroo. These buggers are nearly impossible to catch, cos they are so wary & very (as they say in the scientific parlance) 'trap shy'. This is as opposed to the south-western Victorian population of potoroos who are apparently 'trap happy'...there's obviously some social difference going on between these populations...Anyhow, so far ain't caught one...other stuff caught includes bandicoots, possums & some of the heftiest rats I've ever seen! See pic of the very cute Long-nosed bandicoot (Perameles nasuta)...also note terrified expression on face!

Other stuff...hmmm...been watching the World Cup & enjoying muchly, & I gotta admit that even I punched the air & yelled triumphantly at 12.58am on Tuesday morn when the Socceroos nailed the Japanese...can't wait for the Brazil game.

Finally, culture comes to Byron tonight in the form of the wonderful Dirty 3 - a band I've loved for years, but have never seen live...well tonights the night, & I can't wait...review to follow if I get to it...