VAMPIRE WEEKEND - COUSINS

The energy in this clip makes me grind my teeth ahahaha (but that's a whole other story). It's a great clip and the song aint half bad either, they've got a groovy 60's beach blanket surf safari guitar thing goin on in there at times. The only downside is they all look like they're 16 years old and I never did anything like this at that age, I wish I had but I'm crap at musical instruments and none of the bands around when I was sixteen needed a triangle player blah blah blah yeah yeah get on with the clip....

did I mention these guys make me feel old?

SAIGON FONT

This is the most curious shop I know of in my neighbourhood. It's had the same items on display in its window for as long as I can remember, it's phone number is one number short and obsolete and I have never ever ever seen anyone enter or leave it. In fact I've never seen it open.

I love the wooden facade/sign and the lettering font. This place is one of my favs

J.D SALINGER DIED

I didn't exactly go the traditional route through high school, in as much as I never read a classic novel of any kind, except maybe Moby Dick and Robinson Crusoe, but that was when I was really young. So it wasn't until I was in my late twenties that I picked up J.D Salingers Catcher in the Rye. That was the book that changed everything for me, up until that time I hadn't been reading books at all, this was a book. It completely changed the way I selected books to read and it still does to this day. It might be time to revisit it.

New York Times obituary

TAXI CAB CONFESSIONS # 15

I used to drive a taxi/cab. Why? I often ask myself that, it was a shitty job, but it got me through 2 years of university, so it served a purpose. I was telling a few stories from those days to a friend recently and it got me thinking that I should write these stories down before I forget them.

Sticky notes

Driving a taxi sadly goes hand in hand with verbal and at times physical abuse. I was lucky, lucky that in the two years that I drove a cab I was only ever actually physically attacked the one time. A couple of times I got involved in a confrontation but for the most part I came through unscathed. Verbally is another story all together.

Most of it was drunken gibberish, offers to "Fight for the fare, I win I don't pay, you win I pay double". Not sure the sanity in that challenge but it happened from time to time. Towards the end of my time I started to stop accepting the verbal and would stop the cab and throw them out, enough was enough, I didn't need their money that badly. Well I did really but I just wasn't prepared to accept it anymore.

I'd pulled up at the Subi Hotel rank and 6 people started to climb in, I had to explain to them I could only take four and another cab would be along soon enough or as they were only going to Shenton Park I would be coming back soon anyway. They agreed and two jumped out, we cruised up Rokeby rd without incident and then I heard ....

"Thanks for leaving my friends behind you c#nt"

I stopped the car straight away and asked him what he'd said, although I'd fully heard, I just wanted to make a point. He declined to repeat it so I jumped out of the car, opened his door and told him to get out. Now this was a brilliantly stupid thing to do as I'm now out of the taxi which means I'm away from my panic button (they all have one) and more than an arms length away from my torch which was in reality a baton and my first line of defence.

"You can get out and walk mate, the rest of you can stay, he walks"

Upon hearing this his friends quickly changed their tone from "He didn't mean anything to get out" Ha, nice friends. So get out he did, all 6 foot 5 of him, man this dude was huge, I was seriously screwed right now. Thank god he was a docile giant who meekly accepted his punishment and started walking home. I got away with that one

Other times I've put up with the abuse, two instances stand out large, although separate fares they share a common theme. Guy # 1 I'd picked up at the casino and Guy # 2 wanted to go from Northbridge to Spearwood .

Guy # 1 was a jerk, pure and simple, he talked to me like I was a lowly scum taxi driver with no future and all he could brag about was how much he'd won at the tables that night. He even showed me a fist full of fifty dollar notes and then proceeded to tell me loudly that I had probably never seen and probably wouldn't ever see that much money again.

Guy # 2 was just an arrogant arsewipe who for the entire ride to his home spoke about woman and how they were just whores and bitches and how he had so much money from his concrete business that all chicks only ever wanted him for was his money (pretty sure it wasn't for his pleasant personality) "I can get any woman I want mate, I just can't trust them, cos they're whores and they just want your cash" When I declined to agree with him he quickly determined that I was just a wanker who loved whores and bitches.

Now Guy # 1's fare was around $55 and guess what he paid me, yep exact fare, he peeled off one of the crisp fiddies from his fist sized pile of fiddies and threw it at my lap along with the exact remaining amount of the fare. Not even a dollar in tip and after all the shit I had taken from him and listened to he wasn't even prepared to tip my poor useless never amount to anything arse.

Guy # 2 finally had me pull into the driveway of his two storey brick and tile mansion in Spearwood and thrust 2 x $20 bills at me to pay his almost $40 fare. Again no tip and he waited for his coin change. I guess he was still making payments on those huge wrought iron fences. He needed it more than I.

Now for the common theme. If you win at the casino and if you go to an ATM before you line up for a cab in Northbridge chances are you will get crisp brand new notes. Guess what crisp brand new notes do when they're crisp and brand new. They tend to stick together. I will say with all honesty that I considered calling Guy # 1 back once I had realised that his fifty was in fact $150, but as I looked up at his large body weaving across his front lawn I could clearly see that he was flippin me the bird. Nice tip, cheers. I can also honestly say that I disliked Guy # 2 so damn much that I never ever considered calling him back once I realised I had $80 not $40 in my hand.

The moral of this story peeps is always be nice to your cabbie.....oh and really really check those notes when you go to pay.

You can read the other stories in the series so far by clicking the taxi cab confessions link under 'my essays' in the sidebar

365 DAYS WEEK 11

Week 11 of my 365 Day challenge. It began with some old school fashion tips, some architectural gems a standard beer, the Red Baron, an idea and it all ended with a cool message to a certain sub group of people who should pull their heads in before it's too late

AUSTRALIA DAY IT WAS

As I do every year I avoided hitting the actual foreshore for the fireworks, turns out I probably should have gone this year as everybody else stayed away as well. We had a great day regardless. It all began around 2pm with a long lunch and numerous drinks down at Hyde Park.....

Clearly the day had been a long one

Michael spotted the yellow couch, raced over and introduced himself and became instant best friends and managed to convince them to strike a pose. Result, two great pics. We gave them the word YeLPar to google and hopefully they've found this spot, if so then just click on the pics gang then hit the all sizes tab when you get there and you'll have some larger versions. Then leave us a hello message in the comments to let us know you found em yeah :)

Then it was time to head to Waz and Gaz's place to clamber up onto the roof and watch the fireworks explode over the city. My pics aren't the best as alcohol may have hindered my ability to actually select the correct settings, but they're okay....

Mega photo post ends here

BLACK SWAN - THOM YORKE

Such a beautifully understated song by Radioheads frontman Thom Yorke. Listening to the lyrics right now and it really is the perfect song for me tonight.

04 Black Swan by StuRap

PURTELLS STREET SCAPE

The Purtells Buildings on Newcastle st, Northbridge. So many different shops throughout the decades, some can still be seen on the awnings. My fav was the rockabilly hairdressers that was in the first shop during the 80's. So cool for school at the time. This building just keeps on doin it;'s thing with very little change. One of my favs....

Larger and better versions over at YeLPanorama

OLD PERTH # 7

We used to shop at Aherns until....

Perth has had a slightly complicated history with it's big department stores over the decades. Moving locations, building new buildings and demolishing the old. Some brands even packed up and left only to return years later. These pics are of the old Aherns Department store that was still around until only a decade or so ago when it was bought out by David Jones. Aherns and now David Jones stretches between the Hay st and Murray st malls.

Hay st entrance 1938



Murray st entrance 1938

The Aherns Arcade, 1950. I don't recall there even being an arcade near Aherns, but hey I wasn't even a twinkle in my dads eye in 1950 so maybe someone else knows something about it. Considering the amount of arcades that currently sit between hay and Murray st then I wouldn't be suprised that there was one.

I kind of do remember this entrance, very sixties/seventies. I think this was the facade when David Jones took over in the late 90's or at least a refurbished version of.

PICTURES THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ALBUM COVERS # 2

GROOVE ARMADA FEAT BRYAN FERRY

Great newish track from Groove Armada - Shameless Feat Bryan Ferry. It's well worth a listen

If you'd love a copy of the mp3 then click here to head to RCRD LBL and grab it there for free.

ADIDAS I LOVE YOU

My personal thing with sneakers these days is everything 3 stripe Adidas and not much else. I just scored myself a nice pair of mid - top Campus Hi's

But I'm excited (in a totally nerdy kind of way) about the new Adidas Star Wars originals series which should be with us soon, in particular the Orange Skywalker Hi Tops. They look mighty fine.

Check out a sneak peak at the range here and then watch the vid below which features David Beckham, Snoop Dog and Darth Vader v Daft Punk, yep Vader v Daft Punk...I so hope there's more.

365 DAYS WEEK 10

Week 10 of my 365 Day challenge. Something new, something vintage, something Jenga, a sail, a bit of me and something to drink to end it all off.

THE HOOD # 103

Faces of you

JAPANESE ITALIAN ANYONE?

Organised a dinner tonight with Nige and Adz, we fancied a bit of Japanese so we booked into Hanami in Mt Lawley, good food at Hanami, not that we got any tonight though. I was about to head up there when Adz rang me

Adz "Dude you sure you booked?"

Me "Yeah man definitely"

A "They don't have it, but they do have a booking for Dewart at 7pm"

M "Haha that'll be me man, they probably just didn't quite understand Stuart when I said my name"

A "Righto see ya in a bit"

Moments later I get a text message from Adz

"Nope, the Dewarts showed to find me at their table, seriously. I'm now sitting at a table in the car park"

Nige and I arrived minutes later and we all decided that we weren't dining in a car park, we'd head down to Cantina 663, It's always good there. Italian and not Japanese but we still had a great meal. I couldn't stop laughing at there actually being a Dewart party though hahaha what are the odds?

HOLY KIOSK

Yep, I just updated YeLPanorama....what next? World peace? Hey I'm only one man people, only one man.

BLAZING HEAT

Extremely hot today, peaked at 42.7C and I felt it. An outside thermometer showed the true in full sun heat at 52C so you get the idea. Drove home along the beach this afternoon and noticed an old icon of my early surfing days, the Leighton Beach Kiosk. Many a hot meat pie and an icy cold choc milk have been devoured here after a few hours amongst the waves. Yeah you do so get a surfable break at Leighton...at times. I still have the scar on my right cheek where my board smashed into me once just a few metres west of that kiosk and sent me on my way to collect 5 stitches It wasn't open this afternoon but I'm guessing it just does weekend trade these days.

A little further down the coast towards Cottesloe and I looked out to see this rigger under sail. That would be a nice place to be this afternoon, diving off it for a swim. I'm pretty sure the pack of 17 hammerheads they spotted this morning have moved on by now.