Archive for October, 2008

Birthday Augie March

9:40 pm, October 31st, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Posted in girlthings, local, mooosic, photography, traaiiiiin by Liz

As Jarod pointed out, we went to see Augie March at the Metro for my birthday. It wasn’t really for my birthday, it just so happened that the only night they played in Sydney was on my birthday. And thus, they played for me. Right?

I wasn’t sure if I should take my camera as the last thing I wanted was to be told I wasn’t allowed in, but caution into the wind and home a 10 minute taxi ride away, I decided why not.
At the door I was asked ‘Are you a photographer?’ to which I replied ‘Yes’, partially out of habit, and partially because, well, the question wasn’t all that specific.
I only took the 50mm & 30mm (1.4) anyway, so I wasn’t about to take sellable photos without pit access.

We arrived in time to see Dan Kelly & the Ukeladies start. We managed to just make it to the front row, albeit in front of the left speaker stack, which Jarod was kind enough not to complain about.

Early on in the night, I met a certain Mad Cat Lady from the Augie March forum. Well, to be precise, she came up, held out her hand and said ‘Sillykitty?’
Now, that hasn’t happened to me in almost a year (strangely, it did used to happen quite often).
I’m used to random internet encounters, so was quite happy to put a face to the name. The hilarious part was when she turned to the boy and said ‘And you must be Jarod!’. Insert Jarod’s first ‘recognised from the internet’ experience here, because of the overexposure on my photostream. And perhaps this blog. Train also got a mention, so she can’t feel left out.

And so, the Augies came out and the crowd went a little bit mental. I’m not sure if I missed something vital, but Dan Kelly played with them for most of the gig. They also had a three piece (interchangable, it seemed) brass section, which came out for all the appropriate bits.

I was quite disappointed initially, they played a bunch of songs from Watch Me Disappear, all sullen and grumpy, no banter or hello to the crowd. Glenn wasn’t having the best night, and did stop a few songs altogether to try them again.

Here is the set list:

Watch Me Disappear
Lupus
Pennywhistle
Glenorchy Bunyip
Cold Acre
Mugged By The Mob
Farmer’s Son
The Devil In Me
The Slant
Owen’s Lament
Vernoona
Thin Captain Crackers
The Baron of Sentiment
One Crowded Hour

[Encore]

Dogsday
Drowning Dream
Brundisium
Train
There Is No Such Place

Around the time they got to Cold Acre, they’d loosened up a bit, acknowledged the crowd and things seemed to go a bit better, despite the worsening technical and memory difficulties.

When I realised they were playing Owen’s Lament I squealed like a fourteen year old. But, oh, it was worth it. Even if Glenn did mix the lyrics of the first and second verse. He certainly looked embarrassed about it.

One Crowded Hour turned into a sing-a-long, whether the band liked it or not. They kept up their part while everyone else seemed to try and overpower Glenn’s voice. Didn’t work.

Drowning dream was absolutely delightful. The way they all were in their own little music-y worlds with their eyes closed in the middle of the song reminded me why I like them so much.

Brundisium reminded me of when I saw them with Antz in Perth with WASO. Just awesome and overpowering and brilliant.

Train was, well, hilarious. Every time Glenn yelled ‘Traaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnnnn’ I got an image of little terrible Train in my head and it made me giggle.

There Is No Such Place was the perfect song to end the night with… but Glenn kinda ruined it for me. It was so beautiful and still, and he came to the end of the song… and forgot the lyrics. There were a bunch of people in the crowd already singing along, so it ended with an soft, girly chorus of
‘Just a can upon the sill
To catch the tears
To feed your garden…’
But instead of letting it go, Glenn made the point of mentioning he’d stuffed up, spending a moment remembering the lyrics and then singing them, and the moment was well over by then.

But, enough rambling. Overall it was a great great great show, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Oh, and I was allowed to take photos. I was very very cautious, and had a security guard right in front of me, so I figured I’d rattle a crappy shot or two off and put it away, but they were completely fine with it, despite the ‘absolutely no photographic or recording devices’ signs.

And so yes. It was wonderful, and I need to catch up on sleep.
(Photos are in the photo section up the top.)

Augie March Live in Sydney

1:31 pm, October 31st, 2008 | No Comments »
Posted in boythings, local, mooosic, photography by Jarod

As a part of Liz’s birthday festivities, we headed into the Metro to see Augie March last night. Being my first time seeing them live I didn’t know what to expect… suffice to say I was more than blown away.

That is a blatantly stolen photo from Liz’s 40D. I didn’t even kid myself about taking the D200 as it’s low light capabilities aren’t quite up to scratch.

Anyway, this is just a short note to say that the gig was awesome and I’m properly addicted to Augie. Tis sad that I was only introduced to them now, given that they might not be around much longer.

I’ll be badgering Liz to do a proper writeup of the said awesomeness. In the mean time check she’s got a whole bunch of photos in her flickr stream.

Not good birthday news…

6:14 pm, October 30th, 2008 | No Comments »
Posted in geekery, girlthings, idiotbox, internets, roundups by Liz

Thanks (or no thanks) to ABC News

Doctor Who star David Tennant has announced he is quitting the hit science-fiction series.

Tennant, who has played the 10th incarnation of the Time Lord since 2005, says he will leave the role after completing production on the four special episodes to be screened in the UK in 2009.

“When Doctor Who returns in 2010 it won’t be with me,” he told the National Television Awards.

“The 2009 shows will be my last playing the Doctor.

“I love this part and I love this show so much, and if I don’t take a deep breath and move on now I never will and you will be wheeling me out of the Tardis in my bath chair.”

There has been no word as to who will replace Tennant.

No fair :(

The Hundred Push Ups Training Program

9:13 pm, October 27th, 2008 | No Comments »
Posted in boythings, geekery by Jarod

Okay. Let me say this from the outset. I think my abs & core strength is fairly good… it’s more the flab on top of the muscles that I’m not overly happy with. And it’s with that disclaimer that I’m proud to announce I’m going to give the one hundred push ups challenge/training program a go.

Clearly that’s not me doing pushups. For starters, it’s a girl.

It’s essentially a 6 week plan for doing a whole bunch of pushups, and ramping up your ability to do lots in a row. They tout it as only needing 30 minutes a week. I’ve got thirty minutes spare, somewhere.

Anyway, check out the site and join me in a quest for better core strength. I’ll be doing my initial exhaustion test^^ between now and Sunday, then week one starts a fresh from next week.

^^ It even sounds scary!

The Single Speed

8:29 am, October 26th, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Posted in bikes, boythings, photography by Jarod

About 18 months ago I converted my trust hardtail Giant into a single speed. Since then I’ve owned three different bikes, but none of them have compared to the amount of fun I’ve had on the Giant/single speed.

So it’s time to give it a bit of a make over. New front and rear disc brakes, stem and handlebars have all been ordered. The frame is stripped down and is getting the bumps and chips in the paint sanded out. The rear caliper mounts & cable run lugs have been filed smooth. Still to be done will be a brand spanking new coat of paint will be spraygun’ed on this time, not just from a rattle can. Stickers, clearcoat, then reassembly.

Shall probably end up selling the last of the other three bikes that I own after this. Cause really, I’ve probably done three times the amount of kilometres on the single speed than I have on it in the time I’ve had it.

WTF, Broccoli?

2:15 am, October 26th, 2008 | No Comments »
Posted in girlthings, internets, roundups by Liz

Very amusing post over at Bread and Honey. Go there and read it, so I don’t have to steal their stuff.

Watch Augie Disappear?

8:57 pm, October 25th, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Posted in girlthings, internets, mooosic, traaiiiiin by Liz

I stumbled across an article online at SMH (here) about Augie’s latest release, and some comments from the band. By the sound of things, things are a bit rocky…

In separate long conversations Glenn Richards, the band’s singer and songwriter and resident Eeyore, and Edmondo Ammendola, bass player and self-described “glass half-full” man, reveal a band in flux. A band still recovering from a bruising recording experience with producer Joe Chiccarelli, who arrived with very strong ideas and imposed himself more than any other producer had with them before. A band uncertain if their new writing and working methods have worked and not certain if they like or dislike the new album.

“We’re not communicating as well as we should be at this point in our career within the band,” Ammendola says. “The music has got more focused, the production has got more focused, as individuals we’ve all sort of honed what our sound in our head is to the point where we think it’s being clearly represented on a record. But yet the other stuff, like hooking up a rehearsal and making sure everybody turns up, has gone by the wayside. There are factions and fissures within the band that are their deepest yet. I don’t mind saying that. I don’t think saying that sort of thing is detrimental.”

Are these differences reconcilable?

“I think so but at this stage a lot of things are quite difficult,” he says. “That’s not necessarily a negative thing. What’s happened in the past is that, regardless of what’s going on outside the band or how people are feeling, the will to play good music is still very much at the centre.”

… (later on in the piece)

It’s also true that no one is more likely to say about this album “it’s not that good, we’ve stuffed it up” than Richards.

Hearing this, Richards laughs knowingly. “That’s pretty much where I’m at. Not the kind of thing I’m supposed to say, though, is it? I think it’s a good collection of songs. I know where they could have gone and, as often happens, they’ve gone somewhere else. But it’s a nice album.”
It is more than that, of course; it is a very good pop album. Which isn’t necessarily something that people would have thought of with Augie March before.

“Um. Well, look, I’m getting from the unlikeliest of places favourable commentary and I didn’t expect that, so that’s made it a little more interesting to me,” Richards says, not entirely convincingly. “I don’t know. I grew indifferent to it pretty early on. For another three years to elapse [since he wrote the songs for the previous album] and only 11 songs to come out of it is always a bit heartbreaking for me.”

Aww, guys. C’mon.

While I don’t think Augie’s latest album is their best one yet (Sunset Studies is still my favourite), it’s still a good album.
I also hate trying to sound like I know things about music, when I mostly just know what I like… and I like Augie March. A lot.

In case you didn’t know already, Train was actually named after This Train Will Be Taking No Passengers from Strange Bird, mainly for the way Glenn sings ‘Traaaaiiiiiiiin’ at the start of the song.
My sister also happens to have an Augie tattoo on her wrist. Clearly, she’s a little more dedicated than I.

I’m glad that I’ve got tickets to see them when they’re playing in Sydney, because it sounds like perhaps it may be longer than normal before that happens again.

Fingers crossed that their latest album title isn’t a sign of things to come…

The Rotapult

4:50 pm, October 25th, 2008 | No Comments »
Posted in boythings, geekery, roundups by Jarod

Clearly the best thing ever. Be warned though, the camera angle of the two minute mark will make your brain explode.

A friend you can eat.

12:14 pm, October 25th, 2008 | No Comments »
Posted in cuteness, girlthings, internets by Liz

So wrong, but so cute.

Apart of the Swedish Fish ‘A friend you can eat’ promo things. More here.

afriendyoucaneat.com

jarodandlizproductions.com gets a few updates

7:24 am, October 25th, 2008 | No Comments »
Posted in boythings, geekery, internets by Jarod

Liz and I have been extremely happy with the response to the Jarod and Liz Productions. But there were a few people who suggested ways in which it could be improved.

The changes were pretty much all suggested by Harley. There were a few little ones relating to standard monitor sizes, but the big one was that he wanted clickable examples of our work. Well, sometimes you do get what you want in this world.

A lightbox javascript plugin has been added to all the examples of our work. So they’re super easily viewed and next/previous’able within the same category. Nifty!

Also, big thank you to Wing who proved himself to be a better spelling/grammar checker than Liz, Train and myself all put together.

Unexplainable.

7:11 pm, October 20th, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Posted in comedy, cuteness, girlthings, local, photography, traaiiiiin by Liz

All I can say is that we didn’t put her there.