Thanks be to Tiff for pointing me in the direction of this amazing piece of art. The artist is Kseniya Simonova from Ukraine constructing an animation of the German invasion and occupation of Ukraine during WW2. Watch what she does at 2.00 and 5.00. Those are my highlights in this incredible piece. Wow just wow.
29 September 2009
27 September 2009
ITS A BIRD, ITS A PLANE, ITS A .... HELICOPTER?
The opening scene of Fellini's La Dolce Vita is a helicopter carrying a statue of the Virgin Mary high above Rome. Well today I had my very own La Dolce Vita moment, not exactly a Virgin Mary but a chopper carrying a large truss flew over our heads. You really do get to see some very odd things up here.
La Dolce Vita
25 September 2009
I JUST DONT DO COUNTRY
Country music that is, I've tried but I just can't. That said I haven't written the entire genre off, just the Slim Dusty/Nashville she left me with 6 kids and a crop in the field kind of country. This is a bit of a problem for me at times, a problem because I work with a bunch of Aboriginal guys when I'm in the Pilbara and they LOVE it. Old or young country music is their soundtrack. So I've found over the years that to keep the peace in the car I've had to slip some country onto my iPod. Tenuous country though, for the guys that is, not for me.
Johnny Cash, Credence Clearwater Revival, even the Lemon Heads have a country feel to some of their songs and then there's Gillian Welch. This is what fills the country playlist on my iPod. Not exactly a mix that will gain me entrance to the mid west section of heaven but it's the best I can do.
Johnny Cash, Credence Clearwater Revival, even the Lemon Heads have a country feel to some of their songs and then there's Gillian Welch. This is what fills the country playlist on my iPod. Not exactly a mix that will gain me entrance to the mid west section of heaven but it's the best I can do.
CCR and the Lemonheads you've all heard of....haven't you? so I wont go on about them. Mr J Cash however has been in and out of my life since I was a kid. I just remember hearing his songs being played in our house and I remember seeing him on TV always dressed in black. Then they made that film and now everyone knows Johnny Cash.
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Just before he died Johnny put out a couple of albums of covers and it's probably his version of Nine Inch Nails Hurt that stands out for me. He died about 4 months after this clip came out, he knew he was dying when he made it and it's kind of perceived as his epitaph, poignant at the very end when he slides his hands across the piano. His wife June is in the clip as well.
Then there is Gillian Welch, now even if you hate country music more than I do you will still like this, it's an incredible song and great clip. If you do like it investigate some of her post 2003 stuff.
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Labels:
Gillian Welch,
Johnny Cash,
Music,
Vids
24 September 2009
SUSHI STATION FUJI
Just the name alone intrigued me, Sushi Station FUJI, so when deciding on which of the 4 or 5 Japanese restaurants to go to in Vic Park this one stood out just by its name. So that's where we went and it was a good decision. It doesn't look like much from the outside, pretty shabby in fact, but once inside it almost has an authentic small Tokyo restaurant feel about it. A Wednesday night and fully booked, always a good sign. Ours was the last table to fill, shoes off and slide into the seats. What to have?
Karks insisted on the tofu and said I'd love it. I have never loved tofu, it's just wrong, the texture especially but even the taste and at times lack of taste just puts me off, but I said I'd try. Linda and I chose the salmon and tuna steaks. I am so glad I had the salmon and tuna to choose from because as I predicted I almost gagged on the tofu. Not that there was anything wrong with the tofu, by all accounts it was fantastic, it's just tofu and I....we just don't get along.
Main course was easy, Bento box's for all. So tasty and a great selection of everything I love in Japanese cuisine. All up around $80 for 3 which is pretty good for such generous portions. Such friendly smiling waitresses as well. Definately heading back to Sushi Station FUJI again, 3.5/5.
Vic Park is exploding with restaurants and cafes and the Albany Hwy strip is looking good. I'm not sure on the quality but hopefully I'll get to try a few more soon. Fingers crossed.
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Lowlight: My resistance to tofu
Score: 7 tempura prawns out of 10
Labels:
Food Review,
Karks,
Linda,
Restaurants,
Sushi,
Victoria Park
DAN DEACON PADDLING GHOST
A great new clip from Dan Deacon. He's the crazy dude DJ I saw supporting Feist a year and a half ago. Any clip with puppets including a Dan Deacon puppet is fine with me.
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Dan Deacon - Paddling Ghost from Natalie van den Dungen on Vimeo.
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Labels:
Dan Deacon,
Music,
Vids
23 September 2009
RED DUST DAY
An amazing red dust storm struck Sydney today. The pics coming out of this are incredible. These are from a Gallery put together by Tom Coates on Flickr. Click here for many more incredible vistas.
CHANGES ARE A FOOT BUT NOT MY FOOT
So much activity on the Beaufort st strip at the mo. I mentioned this bar and the murder in the kebab shop a few weeks ago and I was thinking it looked small for a bar but then, because I'm a genius, I figured it out. They're doing an L shape around the noodle bar and incorporating the old Richies restaurant (A restaurant that I and a few others figured for a money laundering venture because it stayed open for so many years with hardly a customer) and thus the front door will be on Beaufort st. See, my powers of observation are brilliant....


Across the road and to the left some is another bit of construction, this time in the old Suraj curry restaurant. This is apparently going to be a tapas bar. So good to see the new liquor licensing laws are being used to good effect. It should have happened years ago....but it is Perth and you can't rush things in W(ait) A(while).
22 September 2009
RANDOM IMAGES # 32
Which naturally makes me think of REM and how I really hope I get to see these guys live one day. I'd be as happy as the girl at 3.30
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Labels:
Random Pics,
REM
21 September 2009
SYMPATHY FROM THE DEVIL WILL DO FINE
Still feeling less than anywhere near normal, day 5 of this flu so I'm looking for sympathy.
Sympathy For The Devil, Rolling Stones live at Rock n Roll Circus 1968
Sympathy For The Devil, Rolling Stones live at Rock n Roll Circus 1968
Cool to see Brian Jones in a Stones clip and check out the audience members at the very end
20 September 2009
THE HOOD # 92
What a shitty weekend this has turned out to be, I had an awesome 4 days in a row lined up to have off. Starting with dinner at Ria last Thursday night and culminating in a Tex Perkins gig at the Rosemount on Saturday night and catching up with an old friend who lives interstate on Sunday. Yep sounds great huh? Then on Friday morning it all went to shit when I woke up with a sore throat and a blocked nose. Fantastic. Thus began 3 days of self imposed exile locked up indoors. Makes for a dull boy.
So this afternoon I decided enough was enough and I needed to get outside so I shot down to Northbridge to grab a look at the walls of old Red Parrot dance club. It looked like the art piece and installation are almost complete. I also got a better insight into who painted it. I'm guessing by the similarities between the bigger piece and some of the smaller boxed pieces that Jodee Knowles is the main artist. It also looks like Creepy and a few others have their stuff in the illuminated boxes. I gotta drop by at night soon to catch that effect.
So this afternoon I decided enough was enough and I needed to get outside so I shot down to Northbridge to grab a look at the walls of old Red Parrot dance club. It looked like the art piece and installation are almost complete. I also got a better insight into who painted it. I'm guessing by the similarities between the bigger piece and some of the smaller boxed pieces that Jodee Knowles is the main artist. It also looks like Creepy and a few others have their stuff in the illuminated boxes. I gotta drop by at night soon to catch that effect.
Roe st wall
Side wall next to Metro City dance club
Jodee Knowles
Creepy and Co
HURBEN/BENHUR
more Jodee Knowles
17 September 2009
THAT GOOD OLD BLACK PLASTIC
What's going on with the Leederville strip? I was wandering down Oxford st tonight on my way to meet up with Perry and Annie for dinner at Ria when I noticed everything was either empty or closed. Cafe 130 - closed. Cino to go - closed. Green & Co open and packed, hmmm I guess the other cafes aren't bothering to compete. Then I spotted my fav store in the whole of Perth had gone. No more Black Plastic....nooooooooo where will I get my uber cool birthday cards and wrapping paper and cool quirky gifts for my friends now?
Thank god there it was, It's only moved around the corner, but it has been replaced by possibly the ugliest pizza by the slice hole in the wall I have ever seen and I've seen some shockers. How easy would it have been to make a cool/funky pizza by the slice place in THAT spot. But no, it looks as sterile as a morgue, in fact it looks about as atmospheric as a morgue. I'm guessing rents went too high for Black Plastic, but I'm pretty sure the pizza place wont make the rent either. Why does Perth go one step forward two steps back....all the time?
Thank god we have Ria, the food there is always awesome. Malaysian food done fantastically. We had the Duck, sticky chewy caramelised braised duck so yum, fish fillets in a ginger lime and chilli glaze piled high with mint leaves and finally a vegetable curry thick with carrots, baby beans, potatoe and tofu. Such a good meal. Dessert of crepes filled with fresh coconut and palm sugar and cinnamon laced cheesecake with caramel sauce, all washed down with a bottle of NZ Gewürztraminer - Riesling - Pinot Gris (which was way too sweet, we chose badly there) and all for only $40.00 a head.
Tip though, try for the back area. Even though it's stools and a bench it's half as noisy as the main dinning area. The polished concrete floors make for a loud time out there.
Highlight: The braised duck
Lowlight: The noise
8 new flavours out of 10
Thank god there it was, It's only moved around the corner, but it has been replaced by possibly the ugliest pizza by the slice hole in the wall I have ever seen and I've seen some shockers. How easy would it have been to make a cool/funky pizza by the slice place in THAT spot. But no, it looks as sterile as a morgue, in fact it looks about as atmospheric as a morgue. I'm guessing rents went too high for Black Plastic, but I'm pretty sure the pizza place wont make the rent either. Why does Perth go one step forward two steps back....all the time?
Thank god we have Ria, the food there is always awesome. Malaysian food done fantastically. We had the Duck, sticky chewy caramelised braised duck so yum, fish fillets in a ginger lime and chilli glaze piled high with mint leaves and finally a vegetable curry thick with carrots, baby beans, potatoe and tofu. Such a good meal. Dessert of crepes filled with fresh coconut and palm sugar and cinnamon laced cheesecake with caramel sauce, all washed down with a bottle of NZ Gewürztraminer - Riesling - Pinot Gris (which was way too sweet, we chose badly there) and all for only $40.00 a head.
Tip though, try for the back area. Even though it's stools and a bench it's half as noisy as the main dinning area. The polished concrete floors make for a loud time out there.
Highlight: The braised duck
Lowlight: The noise
8 new flavours out of 10
Labels:
Annie,
Food Review,
Leederville,
Perry,
Restaurants,
Ria
TATTOO ME
I've been watching Season One of Miami Ink on DVD and it's really tempting me into another tatt. This time something bigger than my last one. That one has a special meaning to me so small is fine, but this time I'm toying with a few grander ideas. So far it revolves around some script and a star like shape but I'm yet to decide. Time to start getting creative. I'm not sure I'll head back to the place I got my first one from as I've been researching the Perth Tattoo artist scene a bit and I if I go for some script then I know where I'll go, if I go for artwork then somewhere else.
16 September 2009
15 September 2009
TUESDAY NIGHT PLAYLIST # 2
I've spent the last half hour or so listening to Jose Gonzalez and in particular cover versions of songs he's done, so sit back and enjoy Jose Gonzales - The Covers
Edit: I've just noticed that they're only allowing 30 second grabs on this playlist below, which is bollocks as far as I'm concerned. So I recommend clicking here to listen to the whole playlist. Plus you'll get to hear all the others I've made. You may have to sign up, but it's free and takes only a aecond or two.
Edit: I've just noticed that they're only allowing 30 second grabs on this playlist below, which is bollocks as far as I'm concerned. So I recommend clicking here to listen to the whole playlist. Plus you'll get to hear all the others I've made. You may have to sign up, but it's free and takes only a aecond or two.
Playlist
- Teardrop - Massive Attack
- Love Will Tear Us Apart - Joy Division
- Smalltown Boy - Bronski Beat
- The Ghost Of Tim Joad - Bruce Springsteen (note: Junip is Jose's band)
- Hand On Your Heart - Kylie Minogue
Jose
14 September 2009
IL LIDO
"Cant make Thursday night, have a lecture, wanna go tonight, we can go to Il Lido instead cos it's on your way home from work and we can pick P and A up on the way"
"Sure sounds good, cept I'm dressed like shit"
"Meh it's dark who will see?"
"Right on"
So that's how I ended up at Il Lido in Cottesloe for dinner tonight along with Karks, Perry and Annie. I love this place and it's most awesome when you're all toasty warm inside and the beach across the road is wracked with strong winds and rain.
I was really in the mood for some risotto tonight and they had 3 to choose from. I chose the risotto with grilled scallops. It was pretty good but just lacked something, lacked that final punch and thus it was a tad bland. We also made the mistake of not ordering a starter and the mains are a good size at Il Lido but not huge. With a starter they would have been perfect. The fish, sirloin and marinara pasta that everyone else ordered was beautiful.
The one thing that stands out for me at Il Lido is how helpful they are with choosing wines. They have a pretty extensive list and a huge selection of Italian wines. I've had some great Italian drops over the past year but I don't know a huge amount about them, still learning, so each time I've told them what sort of wine we were after and they recommended something from the list and not the most expensive either, they've suggested reasonable middle of the road priced wines. They've always been right and tonight's Sangiovese, Cab Sauv Toscano blend 2007 was no exception. Under $50.00 a bottle it was a great choice.
Highlight: The wine list and the wine recommendations
Lowlight: my risotto
Score: 8 stormy nights out of 10
Highlight: The wine list and the wine recommendations
Lowlight: my risotto
Score: 8 stormy nights out of 10
Labels:
Annie,
Cottesloe,
Food Review,
Il Lido,
Karks,
Perry,
Restaurants
13 September 2009
40,000
Someone is about to become visitor number 40,000 to this blog. I'll check back later for clues to who it is. Hopefully not someone searching for the following (all of which have popped up in my site stats of late)....
- perth cup shagging through fence
- gay penguin
- filme pornof
- Duck Necrophilia
I'm struggling to work out how some of those words linked them to YeLPar.
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ANSWER: Somebody from Wolverhampton in the UK was the winner, call me to claim your meat tray.
NO NEED TO PANIC
I mean it's only 2 metres long, which says it's only a baby for a carpet python. Wait till it fully grows. My brother was sitting at his office desk in his house in Queensland today watching some college football from the states when he heard a scratching noise. He decided to investigate and there it was less than 4 feet away from him. He says he aged 15 years right there on the spot haha. I think Marvin his cat had the most to fear, the snake then slid out the door and back into the tropical bush around his house. Time to plug some gaps in the old house Justin
Labels:
Justin,
Queensland,
Snakes
12 September 2009
THE HOOD # 91
Labels:
Highgate,
Psyche,
Street Art,
The Hood
10 September 2009
LET EAT BEE
I take back everything bad I said about the Beatles here. Because now I really love their songs, but only when sung by overweight Russian sailors who are backed up by Russian sailorettes with too much make up on....Good times.
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THE BEST OF TIMES
I can't remember the exact conversation I was having the other day but it was with a group of younger archaeologists in my crew. We were discussing how things change over time and not always for the best. Which started me thinking about a whole bunch of things that used to be a certain way when I was a kid....
*I lived in a dead end street, these days they call a dead end street a cul de sac (fancy smancy)
*Bread was delivered to our house daily, we used to leave the money in the meter box and the Tip Top delivery person would actually get out of their truck, walk up our footpath onto our front verandah, open the meter box, take the money and leave the bread.
*The garbos used to get out of their truck (you can sense a theme here can't you), in fact that's not quite true, they were already out of their truck as there used to be a driver and two runners. The runners were often WAFL football players as it was a great way to keep fit in the off season and earn a wage (no huge sport star salaries in those days). They would run across our front lawn, open the side gate, grab our bins, carry them on their shoulders to the truck, empty them, run back across our lawn and place the bins back where they got them from with the lids on
*My dad would leave 2 x King Brown sized bottles of beer on top of our letterbox each Xmas week, every year, for the garbos
*Nobody ever stole that beer
*The Bottle-O guy used to come down our street every 3-6 months or so and collect all of my dads empty King Brown beer bottles, bottles that I had diligently stacked up against the side fence almost every day. Dad loved a King Brown. The Bottle-O guy carted the bottles back to his truck by himself and even gave dad money for the empties
*We used to get money for empty coke, fanta and lemonade bottles. We'd take them to the local deli. I can't remember how much we got for them, probably just a few cents
*A truck used to come down our street every week with bottles of soda pop and deliver them to the houses that could afford to have soda pop delivered. They'd take away the empty ones and wash them and reuse them
*The vegie man would drive his truck full of fruit and vegetables down our street every now and then and all the mums would duck outside and buy something from him. Pretty sure he was an old Italian guy.
*A bag of mixed lollies cost 10 cents and it was a huge bag, mostly because you could get 2 for a cent and sometimes 3 for a cent, except cobbers cos they were always a cent each. The teeth and the bananas were huge, well possibly our mouths were small. Pink musk stick poking out the end of the bag.
(thanks for this memory mum- see comments)
09 September 2009
CEMETERICALLY SPEAKING
Today I decided was to be the day I headed off to the cemetery to ensure they don't bulldoze my mothers grave. Turns out you only get a grave plot for around 50 years and then they can redevelop the land. I don't think they disturb the burial, they just remove the headstone and any trimmings. You can renew the plot for a price if you want, but they aren't renewing the area where my mother is. Plans are to redevelop it in the next 20 years or so, so it turns out I still have some time to figure out what to do.
I kind of like visiting this cemetery. It's an old one and the grounds are beautiful. It's also one of a very small number of places in this city that's pretty much quiet. The residents don't make much noise. Big old gnarly trees, beautiful just the same, hundreds of birds and lots of flowers. You tend to forget the sorrow that flows in and out of the place daily.
I've visited enough times over the years to be comfortable here, some people get creeped out visiting a cemetery, I don't. It's a bit of an adventure in history, style, tackiness and the occasional good laugh. All you have to do is wander the graves and you'll find past leaders, explorers, archbishops, plain old common people and some really interesting plots....
I was walking along the northern edge of the cemetery and came across the place where they bury the priests and nuns. The nuns get simple plaques on the ground, the priests a larger stone and the second Archbishop of Perth gets this monster....
I so love this one. First up it's a bust of the deceased, man they haven't been doing this since Julius Caesar and friends, add to that the effort that has been put into keeping bird shit off of it and you have one very cool headstone, who looks a bit like Tin Tin.
I also found what I want my grave to look like, exactly like this, over grown with jungle greenery. I want a machete kept in a scabbard next to it so that people have to hack their way in to read the inscription....
I kind of like visiting this cemetery. It's an old one and the grounds are beautiful. It's also one of a very small number of places in this city that's pretty much quiet. The residents don't make much noise. Big old gnarly trees, beautiful just the same, hundreds of birds and lots of flowers. You tend to forget the sorrow that flows in and out of the place daily.
I've visited enough times over the years to be comfortable here, some people get creeped out visiting a cemetery, I don't. It's a bit of an adventure in history, style, tackiness and the occasional good laugh. All you have to do is wander the graves and you'll find past leaders, explorers, archbishops, plain old common people and some really interesting plots....
I was walking along the northern edge of the cemetery and came across the place where they bury the priests and nuns. The nuns get simple plaques on the ground, the priests a larger stone and the second Archbishop of Perth gets this monster....
It's good to be King
I so love this one. First up it's a bust of the deceased, man they haven't been doing this since Julius Caesar and friends, add to that the effort that has been put into keeping bird shit off of it and you have one very cool headstone, who looks a bit like Tin Tin.
I also found what I want my grave to look like, exactly like this, over grown with jungle greenery. I want a machete kept in a scabbard next to it so that people have to hack their way in to read the inscription....
"Here lies a man who was once an archaeologist"
"Do not touch the circular panel"
"Do not touch the circular panel"
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