UM CAN I GET A STOOL OR SUMTHIN

I feel I rightly have a bone to pick with the dude who installed the mirror in my camp room, seriously, was he expecting only 7 foot people to stay here. Did they buy these rooms from the Arian workforce camp down the road? I mean come on, I know I'm not tall but I'm not a friggen dwarf, what was he thinking....?

hahaha

SUN SUNNY SUN SUN STUFF.......SUN

This morning I awoke to an awesome sunrise, we get spoilt up here with some spectacular ones. No doubt it's just all the iron ore dust in the air but I kinda like to think it's just how it is. Anyway I was feeling pretty happy with the suns effort this morning....

By midday I was becoming less of a sun worshipping fan boy. 40 + degrees and this monster beating down on my head kinda makes you get that way....

So I figured the sun could redeem itself with me tonight at sunset, surely it would put on another speccy view. Alas no, too many storm clouds have swung in and it was a fairly crappy one. I'll expect better in the morning....

LIVING FOR THE CITY

My brother Justin has landed in the United States, he's there for a work related golf thing - golf being his work, gets to see Tiger Woods make his return in The Masters and basically have some fun while he's there. So tonight he's arrived in LA and headed to his hotel in Hollywood. You know Hollywood right? Boulevard of dreams and all that?

His hotel is the old and very cool Roosevelt Hotel on Hollywood Boulevard, I've been there and it's probably one of the last old Hollywood places still around. For me the rest of Hollywood is a big disappointment and basically a shit hole, but that's another story. My bro sent me through a series of emails tonight, it's been a sudden and harsh welcome to the States for him....

J text message this morning: Hotel Roosevelt is awesome mate, you'd love it

J: Its 2.51am here in LA and I’ve been woken by a guy and a gal having a massive blue which went for 15 mins. The Next thing I hear whack, whack, whack and she's screaming "stop hitting me". It was all coming from the vent so when you walked outside your room heard nothing. I had no fucking idea where it was happening.

Next thing she starts to screaming like he’s killing her and shouting "someone help me please someone help me". Fuck I was hopeless and its was just horrific. They got the guy and the girl is safe but man the last 24 hours have been one hell of a ride.

So anyway as you can tell I’m awake. fully wired now.

Me: yep, welcome to America bro and especially Hollywood. It's far from a city of dreams, more a cesspit of broken dreams, ugly ugly town. But you're right the Roosevelt is a nice looking hotel ;) glad you didnt get involved man, just call those in charge and let them sort it out, people carry guns over there, remember that

J: What make matters worse, I was having a good sleep and now after 1 hour , talking to cops and security staff and giving my side of the story from the vent I am fully awake and now cant sleep.

Me: I gotta blog this, it's such an awesome welcome to America story

J: Ha, go for it

This whole thing got me thinking about that Stevie Wonder song about a small town boy arriving in New York. Pay particular attention to the dialogue at 4.14. Stay safe bro and have fun.

GUNS IN THE SKY

I've mentioned Record Club before when they did a very very cool Skip Spence cover. The latest song is Guns In The Sky by INXS. This time round we have Beck with ....

Joining in this time we had three of my favorite bands— Liars, Annie Clark and Daniel Hart from St. Vincent, Sergio Dias from the legendary Brazilian band Os Mutantes, as well as RC veteran Brian Lebarton, just back from the Charlotte Gainsbourg tour. The record covered this time was 1987 blockbuster ‘Kick’ by INXS. The record was chosen by fellow Aussie, Angus from the Liars. It was recorded in a little over 12 hours on March 3rd, 2010. It was an intense, hilarious, daunting and completely fun undertaking. Thanks to everybody for being there and putting so much into it. Many classic moments, inspired performances and occasional anarchy.

If you have some good headphones then def listen through those, to both songs in fact.

SURFS UP

I figured I'd slip down to Cottesloe Beach this morning on the way into the office and snap this years entrants in the Sculptures By The Sea competition. Only I probably should have checked the dates first, being as it finished up last Tuesday. Sooooo....rater than waste the trip I went for a great walk along the beach which ended up near Cables, one of my fav spots from back when I used to surf this coast. I really should think about getting a long board and getting back into it. For now I just snapped a few pics of the crowd surfing what was a fairly small swell today.

Much larger pics and a few others in the series over ay YeLPanorama

YeLPanorama for more

THE HOOD # 108

Don't panic....just follow the arrow?

A FETAL FOTO DEAL

I wont even bother with the spelling of the word photo because there's a bigger issue here. I'm cruising down Walcott st this morning when I notice this banner hanging on the verandah of a house. At first I figured I'd just read it wrong, but just to be sure I looped the block and came back for another look. Yep I was right the first time. Fetal Fotos.

Hmmmmm okay, now I may be treading on precious territory here, the newborn brigade and all, but I have to ask it. Do we really need this service, do people really want a photo of their child as a fetus? I understand getting that ultrasound pic for the first time showing you your newly created next addition to the family is extremely exciting but we're not talking about that are we? This is a step beyond, we're talking about package deals of glossy photos and a 50 pic DVD. Obviously for when you have guests over for dinner, you bung the old fetus DVD on the TV for everyone to watch between courses.

It kind of brings a new meaning to that old expression "and here's a picture of me as a baby" now it's "and here's a picture of me as a fetus" yeah maybe there's a market for this, I'm not convinced, way too much ewwww factor for me. What's next, photos of the exact moment of conception. Hahaha most guys would love their partners to let them photograph that! "But honey, it's so we can show the kids when they get older"

Am I wrong here, am I just being old fashioned and maybe prudish? What do you think, tasteful, untasteful, too new age, waste of money, great investment? I'm a guy so I don't understand? You tell me.

365 DAYS WEEK 19

Week 19 of my 365 Day challenge. I started the week with a cool sunset which as it turns out hid well what was to come. A few rare self portraits crept in, I dined on ice, I survived the great storm of Perth 2010 and I pondered a little Andy.

PICTURES THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ALBUM COVERS # 3

Eighties techno?

WHOA WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT

Sitting at my desk being quietly industrious and bing out goes my power. Probably should turn my puter off when there's a thunderstorm anyway. No point sitting inside in the dark so I head out to my back deck and start watching the storm front roll in....

and then it hit....

We even had hailstones, not huge ones at my place but the size of golfballs elsewhere. My friends had a room in their Shenton Park house destroyed after the windows were smashed in, he was stuck outside and couldnt get back into the house "It was like a fucking tornado here dude...." Crazy stuff.

I filmed some of it, excuse my voice sounding like a chipmunk at times but I'm still getting it back after losing it for a few days....

this one shows the second front which was much stronger but no hail....



one more here if you can be bothered

as soon as it passed over the city took on a golden glow....





so that was my day, how was yours?

BUT IT'S ALL BLUE

"I know I know, it's all blue in there, freaky huh?!"

Following on from dinner I suggested coffees and seeing as I don't actually drink coffee I was more than happy with Gaz's suggestion to head up William st to Icey Ice. I'd been past this place heaps of times but never gone in. I wasn't exactly sure what they sold at Icey Ice except for something icey. Turns out it's a kind of shaved and fluffed ice which they cover with toppings and bits of your choice.

I chose the chockey ice because as much as I dislike coffee I love chocolate more. Now I'm not really sure how to describe this except to say that I kind of felt like I was eating ice cream and yet I knew it was ice. Did I love it? Hmmmm no, but I didn't dislike it either, it was fun. Would I do it again? Yeah possibly, although I'm sure it's psychological, all along I couldn't help but think I was paying to eat snow, chocolate coated, 100's and thousands, flake and wafer coated snow but snow nonetheless. Definitely an experience.

Two headed monster will rule the world, once he pulls that pole out of his butt, learns how to walk and to get out of Icey Ice

THAI GOURMET CAFE

I had promised some friends not to blog about this place but after my second visit I think it's too good not to be shared. The Thai Gourmet Cafe is on William st in Northbridge, almost next door to the Viet Hoa. This is some of the tastiest Thai food you will ever eat.

Last time I visited I bemoaned the lack of wine glasses, that's no longer an issue, now they just need a ice bucket or two for our pinot gris and chardonnays. A small complaint and I think my only one because everything else was fantastic last night.

Last night was to be the final of I think 253 events to mark Chris's birthday and the closing event of the festival of Chris. Although we will need an official announcement of its' closure on facebook Chris. So I'd been talking the place up all week. Fingers crossed it wasn't a one off thing last time. I suggested we all share a bunch of stuff for mains and we pretty much wrapped that up instantly, then a suggestion for some starters resulted in an order of Thai fish cakes and spring rolls, adventurous no, excellent yes. "The best Thai Fish cakes ever eaten" "Definately home made and not the bought rubbery crap" Both comments on the money, good stuff. The spring rolls were very different, instead of the usual 5-6 cm long oil ridden roll you expect they were in fact around 18-20 cm long, crisp and tasty. You have to order them to fully understand them, for me though as nice as they looked they were the least flavoursome of any of the dishes and yet still better than any before.

everyone tucked in so fast I almost failed to get a pic

So for mains we scored curries and stirfries and "the best Pad Thai I have ever had" with the standard bowl of steamed rice. Now with the mains comes a warning for the uninitiated, the chili uninitiated in particular. This place loves the chili, in fact it loves the short Thai chili. So if you see the words spicey or hot, hmmm or even mild for that matter, in the dish description then expect hot hot chili. If you are not a chili expert, like myself (I had to step outside for a bit last night to cool down from some chili I ate without knowing, man I was sweating), then ask for less chili. I'm not saying you'll get less chili but you'll feel better asking. Don't get me wrong, most dishes don't have a chili element but I'm just warning you on those that do.

"It cost how much?"

At the till we were all forced to cough up the huge amount of $20 each for all that food, I know, crazy, but get in now before they realise they're under charging. And to my friends who think that if I blog about this they will no longer be able to get a seat there I apologise. But I don't think the readership of YeLPar is such that this will be the cause for now.

Highlight: The pad thai
Lowlight: Ice buckets please

Scoring: 7 thai chillis out of 10

BLACK HOLE SUN WONT YOU COME

An amazing sunset over Perth again last night, I just can't help myself when it comes to sunsets, I gotta snap em. This time I was up on the 3rd floor balcony of Waz and Gaz's place. The orangeness (it's a word) is natural I haven't touched up this pic at all. Fab times.

Bigger version over at YeLPanorama and if you're humming this threads title in your head here's the full clip by Soundgarden

YOU CAN'T SHOW THAT

Post dinner wanderings along William st in Northbridge tonight and we passed a massage shop (the legit kind). Closer inspection of the bill of fare suggest there may be more on offer than advertised. I’m fairly certain you’re not allowed to advertise this sort of massage in your shop window. Is that bulge against her rear end suggesting there is more on offer inside for the discerning lady. No mention on the price list at least, Head (corrrrr) - Neck - Shoulder - Back - Arm - Anal?

OLD PERTH # 8

Found these two comparative pics a while back, the colour shot is from 2008 and a black and white one from 1948. It really shows how much the city has changed in the past few decades. Be it the Freeway system, the reclaiming of foreshore land (bottom left) or the hideous structures that now inhabit the rivers edge.

Depending on your screen resolution these pics may be too big for you to see all of them, if that's the case then just click the pic to go to the full size version. Interesting to see what look like warships at the Barrack St Jetty (see close up pic), have to be patrol boats or something as I doubt the river is deep enough for anything else.

Perth City 2008

Perth City 1948

Close up Barrack St Jetty 1948

Close up of Central Train Station 1948

365 DAYS WEEK 18

Week 18 of my 365 Day challenge. Started under a blue sky which simply hid a lot of death and suffering, returned home to a nice suprise, some colours and a horny sign