RAGE!

OK, with YouTube now bringing music clips to the masses, I thought I'd start a weekly "If I were to host Rage" post showcasing my favourite songs and more importantly why I like them

I can't remember who introduced me to Cracker, but this song reminds me of being a teenager. I definitely love the lyric "what the world needs now is another folk singer like I need a hole in the head"
Cracker - Teen Angst.




This reminds me of my good mates back in Adelaide. We used to play D&D and Doom together. Once, my friend Kris started singing alternative lyrics to this song when we were driving and we almost had an accident we were laughing so hard. I still giggle when I hear it.
Queen - Bicycle Race



This was one of the first records I owned. I used to scratch it up on my mum's turntable. She busted me once and I got a hiding and didn't touch records for another 10 years.
Herbie Hancock - Rockit



This track reminds me of when I changed my mind about being in love with a certain girl.
Lyrics Born - I Changed My Mind



Pop Will Eat Itself hold a very special place in my heart, because their music led me places I probably wouldn't have ventured if I never heard them. It was them who led me to Electronic and HipHop music.

Lots of people have songs which remind them of other people and other times. This song in particular reminds me of who I am and why I'm still here.
Pop Will Eat Itself - Dance of the Mad Bastards

Politricks

All these opinion pages and blogs and journalists have simply got it wrong.  

I can't understand why none of the so-called political pundits can't figure out what the UK poll, what the Tasmanian Poll, the SA Poll, what the closeness of the Obama win, and so on and so on REALLY means.


It doesn't mean Conservative / Right are winning / losing to the Progressive / Left.

It means people are sick of the current political process. They're sick of the two party political system. They're sick of Lib / Lab, Lab / Tory, Dem / Reps. Sick of the corruption and the lies and the spin. Sick of being fucked over by big business with the support of big government.

Mark my words. By the end of this decade, there will be a land war in Europe and it will be in part because the people were simply fed up with the political processes which result in parties which are too similar, and will vote in an extremist party of some kind who will either a) kill a whole lot of people who they believe don't belong or b) invade another country because of a).

Help me Obi Wan...

So, I just had my friend around, and we worked on getting her resume from PDF into an editable format.

I won't go into details, a google search will help you do it if you ever need it done, but it made me realise that I really like helping people, especially one on one.

I like showing them how to do things, how to solve issues and how to get the best out of what they are working with.

Because even with what I do know about the topic at hand, I'll still discover things I didn't in helping other people out.

My assistant producer role was like this. I helped people do stuff they couldn't, whether it was through lack of knowledge or lack of time. And I learned so much about the process of making games.

Even though they're pitching my new role in the call centre as being very similar, I'm not entirely sure I'm going to be as good in it. I don't know, I just find something disagreeable about it at the moment.

I hope my trainers and I can identify my issues and work on it before it gets too late and I simply hate the job altogether.

First day of the rest of my life?

OK, so I completed my first day at PCI today.

It took me over an hour to get there by public transport, and even longer to get home. Thing is, I if I rode a bike, it wouldn't take longer than half an hour I reckon! Must discover a better route, especially if I ever have early starts.

On my first day, it felt a lot like being back in highschool.

That's not a criticism, just a statement. After all, our trainer was a highschool teacher, and we were sat in a class with a whole heap of people we didn't know. It was that kind of nervous and excited feeling.

We did a heap of team building stuff, as well as "get to know you" things. There's a few DJs and musos in my group, so that's pretty cool.


Although... and don't get me wrong, the place seems really cool and laid back... we met the "big boss" and he was pretty damn laid back, and PCI seems to have a culture that's rather casual, fun even, as long as you get your work done. The people who work there look happy, and you can tell on the whole people enjoy their jobs.

Thing is... It's just that finding out so many people were DJs/musos reminded me of Spaced, season 2 episode 3 called "Mettle", where Daisy is working in that horrid kitchen in an excellent take off of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest...

Daisy: I can't do this!
Tina (aka the evil nurse): Excuse me?
Daisy: I'm a writer. I'm creative. I'm not a "mopper'"
Tina: They're all writers Daisy.
Daisy: (incredulous) What?
Tina: All the staff here are writers.
Daisy: Not Harris
Tina: Haikus I believe. Charlie there is an actor but he's writing some play...
Daisy: Even Billy?
Tina: Even Billy.
Billy: (stutters) I...I..I was published in '97. It was just a short story... I came here in '98
Tina: They're all creative Daisy. Not just you. Now get creative with this (throws mop at her)

The video is available on youtube (sorry, no embedding, and the bit starts at 6:50... However, I recommend watching the whole episode! It's awesome!)

Last day at Krome tomorrow

It will be my last day at Krome tomorrow.

I'm unemployed once again!

Fortunately I've got an interview on Thursday for a job which starts Friday, which is completely divorced from the Games Industry.

Not sure if I can do it to be honest. I've had shit jobs before, and whilst this one won't be as shit as them, it won't be what I want to do.

I want to achieve my goal of being a producer on a big title (essentially I want to be 'the next' Dude Huge) but with so many good people out of work all over the world it is incredibly competitive at the moment.

As I'm older than 35, and I don't have a US, Canadian or UK passport it makes the whole process a hell of a lot harder for me to be competitive.

So, I've been looking outside the Games Industry at stable employment.

I guess if I get it, I'll go with an open mind and try and enjoy a new experience.

Anzac Day

Although I'm pretty much a pacifist (although I think politicians who favour party over people should be hung) I'm someone who appreciates Anzac Day.

I've have a few friends who either are or were in the Forces, and plus my Uncle and Aunts served too, so there's army blood in me.

Also, whilst at times I've argued that the wars the Anzacs fought in didn't make a difference to the overall working of the world - for all Hitler's posturing, he was still a capitalist and capitalism has a way of making sure no matter who thinks they're in charge it's the correct functioning of capitalism which is most important - the fact of the matter is those people who fought, survived and died in those wars believed they could make a difference, and were willing to fight for that.

Because that's what is important - willingness to die for a cause, something intangible and noble.

I'll never fight for Australia, because it's only a freak accident I was born here.

But I would fight for my beliefs and my rights, because they're something I think I've earned, and more importantly, deserve to keep.

Looking for work, again.

Ok, so I missed a few days.

But it's going much better than I expected. I've posted 5 days out of 7, which I think is a record.

My social life is catching up with me so just a short post today.

I'm on the look out for a new job, so to anyone in the Games Industry if you have a Senior QA Lead or Assistant Producer role available, let me know via the links in my profile.

Anyone else, if you need a Writer/Journalist/Communications Officer, IT /Office Manager, or QA tester, again please let me know!

More layoffs

There were more layoffs at Krome today.

This time it was mostly in Brisbane, but about 5 guys in Melbourne were let go too, which makes it near 100 people in the last 3 months, or a third of the company.

How can an industry which makes so much money be laying off so many people?

I mean, I know why, it's just that no one seems to give a shit.

Everyone is jumping on the mobile/facebook bandwagon, and that might make you a quick buck, but it's terrible for long term stability of the industry.

Problem is, if we're not careful there won't be anyone left in Australia to make games any more - not big budget PS3 / Xbox360 / Wii titles any way.

I used to agree with Walshy when he said Australian Games companies didn't need Government support. His argument was that if we had government support, we'd be forced to make silly games that were culturally relevant to Australia, pretty much like film has to. There's no market for that kind of thing outside Australia, and it's devoting resources away from the main income sources for games companies.

I mean, can you imagine Rabbit Proof Fence: The Game?

But it's obvious to me now that was a misguided and somewhat short sighted statement.


Sure, no one could have predicted the Global Financial Crisis, but if we secured tax breaks for Australian Games Studios, Krome and the other studios that have bled staff and even closed down over the last year would have been buffered from it like other industries have been.

And looking at other film funding initiatives - mostly state based - there's hardly any requirement to be culturally relevant.

And so what if there was? Make a silly game for school kids based on Ned Kelly's life for example, then make something decent for wider audience - at least there would be people still employed. It would be no different to the current projects Krome is trying to become involved in (which, due to NDA agreements, I can't go into).

RIP GURU

Just found out it's being reported that GURU of Gangstarr and Jazzmatazz fame has lost his fight with Cancer.

I'm holding out hope it's not true, but he has been sick for a while now according to other things I've read.

I talked to Guru for a few minutes a few years ago, and he was gracious and kind.

RIP

Cool for Cats

I have no love for Kim Kardashian and her fake tits and vacuous personality

Iin fact if I was to choose saving her over saving a cute little kitty cat, it'd be the cat every time.

At least it's in a cat's nature to be a total cunt. Kim has a choice.

But the hate for her about the cat holding is ridiculous beyond even the incredible size of her fake tits.

Have you ever seen a mother kitty pick up it's little kitty in it's claws and carry it in it's little front paws as it walks on it hind legs as it carries it gently to it's bed?

NO!

Cats are carried by the scruff of their neck!

It's natural. It's the way cats evolved. 

 

There is no way Kardashian would hurt that cat holding it like that.

You know, unlike most of these fucking retards in Animal Liberation groups like PETA, I've read Singer's book on Animal Liberation, and in many ways I do agree and share a similar stance.

But the extremism of these fucking stupid  PETA wanker is worse than the Catholics in their perversion of nature. 

 

They've taken what could was a beneficial response to a situation and corrupted it by taking it to the extreme limits of human comprehension, along the way forgetting their purpose and goals.

 

Supporters of PETA are a fucking disgrace to the human race.

 

Fuck I hate PETA. Fuck off you shit excuses for human beings.

Doh!

I wrote a big post about Public Transport on my iPhone, but discovered after closing the blogger app it doesn't save it unless you press "save".

Oh well, live and learn.

...

I think it's so cool so many people are impressed when I tell them I work for a games company.

I was on the phone to this girl about my banking issues, and she started talking about how none of the people in her office play videogames, and thinks it was cool how I did.

In retrospect, I probably should have asked her out...

Five Minutes of Funk

You may have noticed a change of name of this blog from Sound Off to Five Minutes of Funk.


I figure with internet at home, at work, and on my phone, I should be doing more with this interconnectivity, as well as better justify internet fees, at least to myself.

So, I'll be endeavouring to post for 5 minutes (or there abouts) every day.

Unlike previously with this blog, that may mean a lot more inane stuff, although when it comes down to it I am still me and will undoubtedly post things which are gratuitous self promotion, my wise and learned opinion on all things musical, watchable, readable or playable, or just me ranting about whatever.

As usual, I'll try to avoid blogging about feelings and personal shit, as that hardly interests me so why should it interest you?

I'll also feed into the blog from facebook and twitter, and vice versa.

I've got another idea I want to get off the ground that I want to call Sound Off... so keep an eye and ear out for that ;)

Softography

Here's a list of the games I've worked on since 2003.


Krome Studios Melbourne:
QA on Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole on PS3, Xbox360 and Wii
QA on Game Room on Xbox360
Assistant Producer on unannounced and cancelled Wii title
Assistant Producer on Transformers: Rise of the Fallen on Wii/PS2
Lead QA on SceneIt? Box Office Smash on Xbox360
QA on Star Wars: The Force Unleashed on Wii
QA on Hellboy: Science of Evil on Xbox360 & PSP
QA on The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels on Wii


Krome Studios Adelaide:
Senior QA on Star Wars: The Force Unleashed on PSP
QA on The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night on Wii
QA on The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning on PS2

Ratbag / Midway Australia
Lead QA for Ratbag Games Tools
QA on Wheelman on PS2 (cancelled)
Lead QA on Speedway Sprintcars (PAL) on PS2
QA on Saturday Night Speedway on PS2 and PC
QA on Dukes of Hazzard:Return of the General Lee on Xbox


15 games and 1 set of tools. Not bad for a 7 year career that includes two layoffs in two different cities

Game Room

For those of you who like old games and want to spend fake but real money on them...



Remember pumping quarters into your favorite video games at the classic arcade or passing the joystick between friends on the couch after school? Nothing could beat the sights and sounds of the arcade, with all the colorfully decorated cabinets, or the endless hours of console competition with friends, trumping the top score and mastering the machine.

This spring, “Game Room” on Xbox LIVE lets you relive the glory days of classic arcade games in their original forms. Your avatar will take part in the original sights, sounds and gameplay that will make these retro games come alive on your Xbox 360 and Windows-based PC in one fast, fun experience.

• Game Features
  • Relive the glory days of the classic arcade. “Game Room” replicates the old-school look, sound and feel of a retro video game arcade. At launch, “Game Room” will bring you a library of 30 original arcade and console classics such as “Centipede®” and “Asteroids Deluxe®” from Atari Inc. and other favorites from Activision Inc., Intellivision, Konami Corp. and more, all shown in their original cabinets. Create a brand-new social environment your avatar can explore, trick out your “game room” by arranging your cabinets, and decorate each room with themes and animated icons from your favorite games. With weekly new title releases, your arcade will soon be retrofitted to perfection.
  • Prove you’re the arcade master. Think you have what it takes? Challenge friends to beat your high score by sending custom challenges and taunts across platforms, earn Achievements, unlock levels and climb your way to the top of universal leader boards. Compete in ranked mode, in which you play against other Xbox LIVE members on the world leader board, or challenge mode, in which you take turns playing a game. “Game Room” also offers local Couch Play mode for up to two players — how will you duke it out for arcade supremacy? Enjoy a seamless experience across Xbox 360 and Windows-based PCs as you share games, track your progress and jump back into the game, no matter which of the two platforms you’re on. You can even invite friends into your custom arcade to check out your collection or visit their “game room” to demo games and scope out additions to your collection.
  • Buy “Game Room” titles once and play on both your Xbox 360 and Windows-based PC. Enjoy the freedom of buying games for “Game Room” once and playing on both Xbox 360 and a Windows-based PC for about the same price as a DVD rental. Those who prefer to play on a single platform can purchase individual games for either Xbox 360 or a Windows-based PC at a lower price point, or even pay to play a single game just like in the old arcades. See how long you can last on a single token!
  
  How Do I Play?
  
  An Xbox 360 console or Windows-based PC and an Internet connection are all you need* to access “Game Room.” “Game Room” and associated games can be found on your Xbox 360 in the Xbox LIVE Games Marketplace or in the Games for Windows — LIVE client on your Windows-based PC.
  
  
  How Much Does It Cost?
  
  It is free to download “Game Room,” which you can then populate with classic arcade games available for individual purchase. Buy games once and play on both an Xbox 360 system and a Windows-based PC for 400 Microsoft Points. Or, to purchase a game for only one platform, each individual Xbox 360 or Windows-based PC title is 240 Microsoft Points. You also have the option to pay to play a single game, just like dropping two quarters in the slot in the old arcades, for 40 Microsoft Points. Visit your friends’ “game rooms” and try their games free before you buy.

Xbox.com | Game Room - Game Detail Page

| KROME STUDIOS |

(PS: this is blatant self promotion for myself and my company, but the more people we get interested in it, the longer I can keep my job!)

Comment of the Week

After winning the Kotaku Bioshock 2 prize, I've now got the comment of the week at Gizmodo!

You know, I'm thinking I should start doing this whole writing thing full time... ;)

DJs I've seen

This list is far from complete.

I've been to hundreds of shows, wandering from room to room, and my memory is not the greatest at the best of times.

So if anyone out there can help me out, remembers seeing something with me that I've missed, let me know! It will be greatly appreciated!

Adam Freeland
Ali B
Amon Tobin
Andy C
Aphex Twin
Aquasky
A-Sides
A-Skills
Atomic Hooligan
A-Trak
Autobots
Baboo
Bad Company
Bailey
Baobinga & ID
Benga
Blim
Bob Sinclair
Breakfastaz
Calibre
Calyx
Carl Cox
Cash Money
Chemical Brothers
Coldcut
Craze
Cut Chemist
Cut Le Rock
Cyantific
D Bridge
Dave Clarke
Deadmau5
Deekline & Wizard
Digital Primate
Digweed
Diplo
Doc Scott
Dom & Roland
Drummatic Twins
Dub Pistols
Dynamo Productions
Elite Force
Ellis Dee
Evil Nine
Fat Boy Slim
Felix Da Housecat
Nick Warren
X-Press 2
Food & DK
Freestylers
Freq Nasty
Fresh
Friction
Friendly
Grand Master Flash
Groove Rider
High Contrast
Hurricane
Hype
Ian Pooly
Icey
Infusion
J Majik
James Zabiela
Jazzy Jeff
John B
Joker
Josh Wink
J-Rocc
Katalyst
Kid Koala
Klute
Koma & Bones
Krafty Kuts
Krush
Krust & Die
Laidback
Layo & Bushwacka
Lee
Lee Coombs
London Electricity
LTJ Bukem
Luke Vibert
Mark Rae
Marky
Masters At Work
Matrix
Midfield General
Mix Master Mike
Mr Scruff
NAPT
Neotropic
Noize
Paul
Paul Oakenfield
Pendulum
Plump DJs
Presha
Q Bert
Rae & Christian
Randall
Richie Hawtin
Rico Tubbs
RJD2
Rob Swift
Roc Raida
Roger Sanchez
Sasha
Scott Brown
Scratch Perverts
Shadow
Skool of Thought
Skreem
Soul of Man
Splitloop
Spooky
Stanton Warriors
Starky
State of Mind
Steinski
Sven Vath
Tayo
The Herbaliser
The Nextmen
The Rogue Element
Tiesto
Tiga
Tom Middleton
Top Buzz
Total Science
Umek
Vadim
Wiseguys
Yoda
Z Trip


Oh, and I've left off Australian DJs because, although I think most of them are fantastic and easily some of the best in the world, there are just too many of them and I don't want to offend someone by leaving them off :)

Bands I've seen (complete list)

Here's the almost complete list... I'm sure I'm missing some ;)

I've also included DJ "live shows" like Shadow & Cut Chemist, Kid Koala, Daft Punk and so on... shows good enough to transcend the simple mixing of records to be a full show.

The ones in bold are the one's I saw in the last year or so.

1200 Techniques
AC/DC
Acyalone
Afro Celt Sound System
Afrobeat Public Opinion Orchestra
Alien Ant Farm
Amp Fiddler
Aphex Twin
Ash
Atari Teenage Riot
Basement Jaxx
Beastie Boys
Beasts of Bourbon
Beth Orton
Billy Bragg
Bjork
Black Eyed Peas
Blackalicious
Blink-182
Bliss
Bloc Party
Blue King Brown
Body Count
Breakestra
Butterfingers
Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine
Cat Power
Coldcut
Cooking on 3 Burners
Corduroy
Cosmic Psychos
Cypress Hill
Daft Punk
Def FX
Depeche Mode
Devo
Dilated Peoples
Dizzee Rascal
DJ Shadow
DJ Shadow & Cut Chemist
Downsyde
Easy Star All Stars
Elbow
Faith No More
Fat Freddy's Drop
Fear Factory
Femi Kuti
Foo Fighters
Franz Ferdinand
Freestylers
Fund-a-mental
Funkoars
Garbage
Gerling
Gnarls Barkley
Good Buddha
Gorilla's Sound System
Gotan Project
Gotye
Grinspoon
Handsome Boy Modeling School
Happy Mondays
Headless Chickens
Helmet
Hexstatic
Hilltop Hoods
Hilltop Hoods & Adelaide Symphony Orchestra
Hole
Hoodoo Gurus
Human League
Hunters and Collectors
Ice T
Iggy Pop
Infusion
Inspiral Carpets
Itch-E & Scratch-E
James Brown
Jamie T & the Pacemakers
Jamiroquai
Jarvis Cocker
Jebediah
Jet
John Butler Trio
Jungle Brothers
Jurassic 5
Kid Koala
Kaiser Chiefs
Katalyst
Kosheen
KoЯn
L7
Leningrad Cowboys
Live
Lou Reed
Luke Slater’s Freek Funk
Lyrics Born
Machine Gun Fellatio
Madness
Magic Dirt
Mark Ronson's Version
Massive Attack
Metallica
Midnight Juggernauts
Midnight Oil
Ministry
Mudhoney
Muph & Plutonic
Muse
My Chemical Romance
Mylo
Neon Indian
New Order
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
Nightmares On Wax
Nine Inch Nails
Paul McCartney
Pavement
Peaches
Pendulum Live
Pennywise
Pet Shop Boys
Peter Gabriel
Pharcyde
Phoenix
Pivot
Pixies
Placebo
Pop Will Eat Itself
Porno for Pyros
Powderfinger
Primal Scream
Primus
Prodigy
Public Enemy
Q-Tip
Queens of the Stone Age
Rage Against The Machine
Rammstein
Rancid
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Regurgitator
Resin Dogs
Roni Size’s Raprezent
Roots Manuva
Roy Ayres
Salmonella Dub
Sarah Jones & the Dap Kings
Scissor Sisters
Shihad
Silverchair
Skunkhour
Slipknot
Snoop Dog
Snow Patrol
Sonic Animation
Sonic Youth
Soulwax
Soundgarden
Spank Rock
Spiderbait
St. Germain
Stereo MCs
Stevie Wonder
Stone Roses
Supergroove
Superjesus
The Avalanches
The Bamboos
The Breeders
The Cat Empire
The Chemical Brothers
The Clouds
The Cruel Sea
The Crystal Method
The Cult
The Cure
The Dandy Warhols
The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy
The Donnas
The Flaming Lips
The Hard Ons
The Herd
The Killers
The Living End
The Offspring
The Presets
The Rapture
The Red Eyes
The Roots
The Smashing Pumpkins
The Specials
The Stranglers
The Streets
The Strokes
The Swiss
The Tea Party
The White Stripes
TISM
Tool
Tricky
U2
Ugly Duckling
UNKLE
Urge Overkill
Violent Femmes
Ween
Wolfmother
Wutang
You Am I

I am a winner!

Despite a few people grumbling about it (Rapture IS a utopia, dumbasses!) I won a copy of the Bioshock 2 prize pack from Kotaku!

Here's my entry:

(sung to the tune of Blondie’s “Rapture")

Toe to toe
fighting very close
Plasmids firing
until you’re comatose
Wall to wall
Daddy’s hypnotised
And they’re stepping heavily
Stuck each night in Rapture

Gathering Adam
little sisters
Spindly movements
And a mass attack

Face to face
simply terrified
And it’s finger chopping
Twenty-four hour dying in Rapture

Tenenbaum told me everybody’s high
Atlas spinnin’ not savin’ my mind
Adam is fast, Adam is cool
Fontain say don’t be a fool
And you don’t stop, Suchong
Ryan is makin’ you do wrong

And you get in your sphere and you trip real far
And you dive all night and you’ll see no light
And it fills with water and sinks to the ground
And out comes a man from above
And you try to run but he’s got a gun
And he shoots your head and freezes you dead
And then you’re in the main foyer
Dancing with an ex-lawyer
You kill many slicers
to make the place nicer
And you don’t stop, you keep on killing stars
And you just get more scars
You go out at night and into the deserted streets
Race to face, fight cheek to cheek
One to many and man on man
Fighting toe to toe
Don’t move too slow, ’cause the Big Dad
Is through with slicers and he’s very mad
wall to wall, Through door and door, up hall to hall
He’s gonna get ‘em all
Rapture, be pure
Take a tour, through the sewer
You’ll strain your brain, go insane
You’ll be singin’ la la in the rain
I said don’t stop, drop a block

Well now you see what you wanna be
Make your choice on the VT
‘Cause the man upstairs he won’t care
And now he’s gone back down to hell
None of this bodes too well
And you flip flop, but you don’t stop
Just blast em with a sure shot
‘Cause the man over there is killing and screaming
And now he smokes cigars, level up!

AC [lightning bolt] DC

So I've finally seen AC/DC.

It comes as a shock to many people that I'm an AC/DC fan.

But AC/DC remind me of my youth. I remember sitting up all night listening to AC/DC with Philly D as we played computer games.

So why deny my bogan heritage any longer? Sure, during the 90s I essentially shunned AC/DC, and I fucking hated growing up in Elizabeth, but then I just lost the hate. The people I grew up, many of whom I'm still proud to call friends, shaped me into the person I am today, and the music we listened to was a massive part of that.

And Back in Black is one of the world's greatest albums, especially considering the time it was made, and It's A Long Way To The Top is one on the world's greatest songs.

So, when they announced the tour, I wasn't going to miss out. I camped by the internet and hit refresh until I snagged a ticket to the Melbourne Saturday night concert. Sure, it's not as exciting and romantic as camping out for days under blankets sharing the camaraderie that line waiting brings, but it's a fuckload easier.

After losing my job last November, I was a little worried I wouldn't be able to make it. Job offers from interstate and overseas never eventuated, so the worry was misplaced.

Getting to Etihad Stadium was easy - the train stops just outside, although I had to find a internet cafe to print my ticket out. Thank the universe for the internet!

I got in just as Calling All Cars finished. I downed a few scotches and then found a nice spot mid centre of the stadium. It was pretty packed even at 7:30pm, and although I could have pushed my way further to the front, I knew there would be cameras and screens, so I just didn't feel the need to.

Wolfmother opened for them, and were really good. They kicked off with Dimension, then played a couple of new songs, then got the crowd singing with Woman. During the slow bit of White Unicorn, you know, the bit that sounds like Riders on the Storm, they actually started playing Riders of the Storm. Stockdale's voice is perfect for a Doors cover, and I'm surprised they don't do more of them. They closed with Joker & Thief.

I thought they were a brilliant selection for AC/DC's opening band. They're liked well enough by a wide range of people that people would be singing along, rocky enough to fit in with the overall vibe of the gig, yet not good enough to overpower AC/DC (if that was indeed possible).

After a short wait, the screens lit up and showed a short video of the band on a train. Full of childish innuendo and sexually suggestive images, the "train" then smashed onto the stage as the band played Rock and Roll train. Right from this very first moment I knew we were in for a rocking show!

They played another off their new album, something I'm not overly familiar with, and then got into the older tunes. Dirty Deeds, Shot down in Flames, and Thunderstruck. All the while the whole audience is singing and screaming and having a great old time.

But things really got wild when Brian started singing She's Got The Jack. The screen started showing all the girls on the guys shoulders, and up came the shirts. Brian even said "get your eyes off those titties" at one point, and then Angus started his strip. Much like Devo, these old rockers still know how to entertain.

The classics came thick and fast. The bell lowered for Hells Bells, with Brian swinging from the bottom of it. Shoot to thrill and War machine - a track I do know off Black Ice - had cool visuals with the live action on stage, but nothing was as cool as High Voltage, done as a tribute to Bon Scott with his grinning face looking down at the thousands singing along with his lyrics.

More classics - You Shook Me All Night Long, TNT and Whole Lotta Rosie, which featured a massive fat lady riding the train. Let there be Rock was where Angus got loose, and showed that even at 60 he can still play that guitar well. The encore of Highway to Hell and For those about to Rock was absolutely brilliant.

I would have liked to hear more of my favourite songs - If You Want Blood and Who Made Who would have been nice, but overall I couldn't have been happier with the set. This was what a rock concert should be like! Entertaining and fun, no matter what was played.

I felt the same after AC/DC as I did after Madness, Devo, Primal Scream and The Specials last year. Sometimes I admit I caught up in too much negativity and cynicism, and it takes old farts like these to remind me life is all about having fun. If they can do it at 60, then I should be doing it now, and keep doing it until I'm 60, too.

Journalism

I wrote this as a response to a Crikey commentator. It's essentially what I wrote in Uni about journalism in one of my essays, and it's something I've been meaning to post for a while...

The only role ACA / TT play in society is to sell advertising to those too lazy to switch the channel after the news.

If you think it’s anything else, then you’re an idiot. Simple as that.

However, before you have a go at me for being “puffed up with moral superiority” I also think this of MOST journalism. Including Crikey.

Journalism has never been about the “Truth”. It’s never been about “Facts”. It’s never been about “Democracy”. It’s never been about “Reality”.

Journalism’s first and continued motivation is profit for the owners.

The very first broadsheets were advertising forums for shipping services, designed to profit those who advertised. These morphed into the first newspapers and they too were all about profit.

The very first photo published in a magazine was a montage - two images spliced together. Never mind the fact that this was the first photo published in a magazine - that wasn’t sensational enough - so they had to fake the truth of that photo.

And this sensationalism and profiteering has always existed in the media. The fact that some of it does some good in the world doesn’t excuse or counter this very basic fact about media.

If I make a good product, you’ll buy it. Likewise with media - it’s simply a product. If someone makes good media - and the definition of “good” changes with the individual - people will consume it.

When ACA expose a charlatan, don’t think for a minute they’re doing it for “the good of the people” - they want people to view the adverts and to make a profit out of that.

Likewise, Crikey’s exposure of the tactics ACA use is fantastic, but don’t think for a minute this was published for any other reason than making people want to subscribe to Crikey.

I want to expand on it later too. I think some may view this as extremely cynical, but I don't, and will explain why in a later post.

Avatar

I finally saw Avatar today...

I thought it was a terribly poor and completely transparent, over preachy morality play, with a sappy, predictable and tedious story, barely saved by the admittedly impressive special effects and creature/vehicle design.

Next time you make the world's most expensive movie James, I think you need to spend more money on the actual story...

Top Games for 2009

My top games I've played for 2009 would be:

Fifa 10 (xbox 360)
Such an amazing representation of the World Game.

Batman: Arkham Asylum (PS3)
Great game. Lots of fun and some great characterisation.

Dragon Age: Origins (PC)
So deep and involved. I'm still playing through it for the second time!

Mad World (Wii)
Violent and funny, with a cool and different art aesthetic.

Special mentions to:
Assassin's Creed 2 and Modern Warfare 2.

The worst would have to be:

Indiana Jones and the Staff Of Kings (Wii)
Such terrible execution of the Wiimote. So many times I was doing ridiculous gestures where a button press would suffice.

Sydney Trip 2010

Got back from Sydney this week.

On Thursday we did the toursity thing. We took Luke to Circular Quay, the Opera House, the Rocks and Darling Harbour. Found a great pub in the Rocks called the Lord Nelson Brewery Hotel which had some fine micro brews on tap.

On Friday we headed over to Manly, spent the day at the beach swimming and perving. Friday night the guys went out drinking and I went to my friend Lisa and Simon's for dinner. I tried to meet up with them after, but the bouncer at Goldfish wouldn't let me in, claiming I was too drunk. All I had was two beers! The guy was just a fuckhead.

Saturday we went to Bondi. I've been there before, but never swam there. The water was really clear, which surprised me. After swimming we went to the Bavarian Bier Cafe and had Mango Beer and pretzels.

On Sunday was the Days Like This festival.

We got to the Moore Park Entertainment Complex around 12:30, had another Mango Beer, and went in. The venue was small, and there wasn't much seating really, but those were my only complaints.

The Bamboos rocked it at 1:30pm, and must have been hot in those suits! Amp Fiddler was amazing - nice soulful music. We caught the last song of The Swiss which was good, but that stage was running late so we missed Cassette Kids.

Dilated Peoples were great too, but we left early to see Cat Power, who whilst enjoyable was a little too mellow and bluesy for this kind of festival. We missed Ugly Duckling as we couldn't get in to that area again.

Caught Neon Indian instead, who were pretty cool. Roots Manuva was awesome as ever, with Ricky Rankin and a new guy adding greatly to the sound.

We made our way into the "dance" area and caught the end of Joker... all I'll say about that is dubstep sucks even more when you put rnb vocals in it. Bukem and Conrad rocked up late and the sound was horrendous, so I left and saw Nextmen.

Interestingly, Nextmen had a bigger crowd than Bukem, and I loved it, that is until they started playing dubstep *sigh* They even played a riverside dubstep remix *double sigh*

Returned to Bukem via Pivot (I think) where the drummer was thumping like a mad cunt! Conrad's microphone was still too loud, but the sound was much better overall. I guess the sound guy had stopped chatting up the girl he was talking to and actually did his job...

Then Marky and Stamina jumped up and sounded great, with the crowd going nuts to Marky's scratching. Left to see Redman and Method man for about 15 minutes, but the dnb was better, so returned just to see Marky start playing some old house and cheesy hiphop, which was awesome too.

It was a rather small party, but the vibe reminded me of the first BDO in Adelaide - just lots of happy people there who were music lovers, not party goers.

No short shorts on men, no steroid juice heads (although there were a few drunk topless guys... but it was Sydney after all), no women dressed like they should be on a catwalk... just an awesome crowd listening to awesome music.

Would definitely go again next year, depending on the line up.

On Monday we hired a car and headed to the Blue Mountains. A day of dancing followed by a day of hiking nearly killed me. I think my new years resolution is to get a little fitter.

Damo's got most of the photos on his camera, although I took my camera to the Blue Mountains, and will put them online soon.

We had a great time over there, although I am a little sad "the band" has broken up as Damo has headed off to South America for 4 months.

Still my favourite record

Sex Party!

I think I'm going to vote for these people in the Higgins bi-election...

Australian Sex Party


Mainly because of the following policies:

• Introduce an R and X rating for computer games
  
  
• To overturn mandatory ISP filtering of the Internet and return Internet censorship to parents and individuals.
  

• To enact national pregnancy termination laws along the same lines as divorce law — which allow for legal, no-fault and guilt-free processes for women seeking termination.

• The listing of Viagra, Cialis and other drugs used to treat sexual dysfunction, on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.**

• Overturn restrictions on aid to overseas family planning organisations that reference abortion.
  
  
• Ending the tax exempt status for religions.
  

** not that I have need of these types of things... currently... ;)

iPhone blog

I've got a new iPhone! Testing out some new apps and such ;)


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Piracy and Advertising

I've been thinking about this a lot lately, as I'm downloading a lot of TV shows because Australian TV sucks. When they DO show new content that isn't "reality" shit, they'll fuck up the programming with too many adverts and worse, delay or cut the show due to sports or reality shows!

Now, I would quite happily watch HULU with all it's advertising and such, but it's blocked here. And I'd buy from iTunes if the shows were able to be viewed on my PS3. I'd pay for them on my PS3 or Xbox, but again, the service is blocked.

But one of the biggest arguments against downloading TV shows is the loss of advertising revenue networks face.

But hang on a second.

An average person in the US will see between 600-625 adverts (potential exposures as they call them) per day from all media sources including radio, billboards and the like, with about 400 coming from TV over the 4 hour TV watching average [src] . I'm fairly certain it's similar in Australia.

That means I've seen over 4 million adverts in my life time (assuming I watched an average of 4 hours of TV since I was allowed to watch TV at age 5).

Haven't I paid enough for this content already?

Isn't it enough when people ask me what I'd like to drink at a restaurant I say "coke" without thinking*? Or I know there's a glass and a half of full cream dairy milk in cadburys? Or that Beans Means Heinz?


*this is assuming it's a "dry" restaurant... otherwise it's "beer".

It's all lies!

How many lies do you believe are true?

Got a question for you - how did Apple start?
Steve & Woz in their garage, building their first computer together is what most of you will say... LIES!

Both of them worked at HP and Atari. Both of them were involved in the formative years of those companies - Woz tried to sell his idea to HP and they didn't go for it, so Steve and Woz went out on their own. Sure, they had a garage, they also had formal training and careers in the industry long before breaking out on their own.

How about Youtube?
Two dudes who wanted to share their videos with one another in a discussion after a dinner party... LIES!

Steve Chen and Chad Hurley both cut their teeth at PayPal. In fact, Hurley was one of PayPal's first employees and helped designed its logo. He is also the son-in-law of James Clark, who founded Netscape and Silicon Graphics. A long way from college kids who did it "for kicks".

How many other stories are like this - creation myths, expounded and exaggerated and falsified to sell a story rather than to tell the truth?

I'd argue all of them.

Chris Columbus' is a long cry from looking for India from the West in order to prove the world wasn't flat amongst a mutinous crew. In actuality, he went off looking for gold to get rich so he could get favour of the Queen, and sailors of his day knew the world was round from sailing around the ocean and navigating by the stars and an astrolabe for centuries.

Of course, the greatest creation myth of all is the one found in the Bible, but that's probably unfairly called out because it was the first reproduced in book form and accessible to the 'common man', the first to be set to a specific formula and stay that way, rather than alter and change like so many spoken myths before it.

But for centuries, people have been faking this myth, making it believable by things like the Shroud of Turin or Solomon's Pomegranate.

This is why the only truth is in archeology, the only science to believe is history.

Passenger Mix Tape – DJ Woody vs Body Snatchers

I had a whole different picture of who the Body Snatchers were before getting this release. For some reason I thought they were some lame arse corporate created boy band. So seeing them on a Passenger mix with the likes of Aquasky and Baobinga & ID, mixed by one of the UK's best scratch DJs, DJ Woody, had me really intrigued. Imagine my surprise and delight when instead of a bunch of boys of questionable sexuality harmonising about love, I get a gruff UK hiphop rapping about being tough and how great women with big asses are.

Much of this album is Woody dropping Body Snatchers acapellas over Body Snatchers beats, with some freestyle raps dropped here and there, and scratching thrown in for good measure. According to the tracklisting at any rate, many of the Body Snatchers tunes have been re-worked with different vocals and I suspect given phatter baselines. Most of the mixes are great and work really well together but then again, when you mash up an acapella and instrumental from the same group, it's never quite as interesting as mashing up two completely separate styles. Regardless, the mix slams the bass hard, and the various MCs deliver sound rhymes most of the time.

There are a few rhymes here and there which might leave you scratching you head. "I used to date a girl and her name was Carla / now I've got a Brazilian and her name is Flavia" then something muttered about Shakira… doesn't sound that good on paper and is even worse in verse. However, the rapping over the awesome Monster Cash builds up with the music and is a piece of brilliance which will get your head nodding where ever you're listening to it.

One of my favourite elements of this mix is its sense of fun. A lot of people seem to be so serious in their mixes, yet this one has silly rhymes and shoutouts all the way through it. It has an old school sensibility, with many guests popping up, including BluRum13, Goldmouf, Sirplus, Ragga Twins, and the aforementioned Aquasky and Baobinga & ID. Admittedly you might not know half of these names, but a good mix CD should make you want more from the artists involved, and this album certainly has done that for me.

4 Stars

Test of word blogging

If you see this, expect more content soon J

 

How to get man back to the moon

On the 40th Anniversary of the Moon Landing, I've figured how to get us back up there!

All it requires is one little man with a gripe against America...

Open letter to Kim Jong-Il from the adventurous people of planet Earth.


Dear Kim,

We loved you in Team America. But we do not wish to talk about your wonderful acting. We're writing to you to ask you a favour. We understand you don't like the Yanks much, and frankly, neither do we. They're fat, loud and obnoxious, preaching to everyone about how great and free they are, and yet they can't even show a boob on television without the whole country going apeshit.

We know you have rockets and nukes, but we know, as well as you do, that you wouldn't be able to fire one off before you were bombed back into the stone age. Sure, you might be able to hurt South Korea or Japan, but look what happened to them last time someone fucked with them! You can't deny either country is better off since the war, much better off the France, the UK and USA. Hell, the Japs have huge fuckoff robots everywhere!

So, as adventurous people of planet Earth, people who love adventure and want to see our race spread out amongst the stars, we ask you to direct your attention and missiles away from the pissants here, and instead look to the stars. After all, there are billions of planets out there waiting to be subverted to the communist cause! Hell, find one with the right kind of life, and you could be greeted as a God much like Chris Columbus was when he arrived in the Americas!

But that’s a little ways off, obviously. The first step should be the moon. If you get to the moon I guarantee this will completely piss off the Americans and Japanese, more so than if you bombed them. You bomb them, you’re ash. You own the moon, maybe charge people a fee for looking at it, and bam! Not only is your country rich, you can start negotiating properly with the capitalistic pigdogs on this planet.

Of course, this may create a space race, like in the 1960s and you might find the going tough. After all, the Americans do have an advantage with the quote International unquote space station spying on you as well as being a base of operations, but I’m sure that with your intelligence and demeanour you will be able to win at what ever you try.

Yours truly,

The adventurous people of planet Earth

Yay! I'm not going mad!

I live really close to a railway line.

On the occasional Sunday morning, usually when I've been hung over and still in bed, I've heard what sounded like a steam train go past my house.

It's always puzzled me. In fact, I thought I was hearing things and going mad (too much booze kills brain cells don't you know!), thinking it was a Ghost Train, because I didn't hear the chugging - just the toot of it's whistle - nor smell the coal-fire like I used to as a kid in Adelaide...

No you cunts, I'm NOT old enough to remember the times when steam train was the only form of travel!!! I'm talking about when I'd see steam engines like the Steam Ranger going to Gawler/the Barossa on the odd occasion.

Anyway, the line near my house is electric and at all other times I've only seen passenger trains go on it - not freight nor anything else, and I thought a steam engine might be too big for it, or something.

This morning, I heard the whistle, so I rushed to the door, and saw what it was - a push-pull steam train. It has an engine at both the front and back, I'm assuming so it can get up the hill to Glen Waverley. So yay, I'm not going insane. Nor is it a ghost train.

It fit perfectly under the electric wires, so obviously the government who put the wires in were intelligent enough to make them high enough. Pity the current government can't get the rail infrastructure these days though... BAM!

I looked it up online, and found out Steam Rail Victoria runs trains up to Glen Waverley every so often.

If I knew beforehand, I would have prepared a day of it! As it stands, I've got two overdue reviews to write up and very little cash left from last night's shenanigans.

But I found the also do a Snow Train Ride at the end of July for about $100 return, so might take that for a lark... who's up for it?

Hawaii was awesome!

Hawaii was absolutely beautiful and a heap of fantastic fun!

A True Tropical Paradise

I had a ball swimming, kayaking, snorkelling, and hiking all over the place.

If you've got facebook, my photos are here although they might be open to view by any and everyone...

Some wonderfully friendly Russian-American girls we met

However, if they aren't and you want to see them, try here! I've added a new and improved gallery site to my website - Gallery.FunkyJ.com

The amazing black-sand beach

So far I've put all my pictures from 2006 and up until Womad 2007 up there, although I've still got to go through and fix up the dates and meta tags for quite a lot of them.

It's interesting looking through all these... people I used to hang out with but don't any more, people who used to be friends or partnered but aren't, people who used to live in the country but moved far away, and people who used to be alive but aren't any more...

Makes me a bit homesick actually... But then I look at the pictures from Hawaii and think "fuck Adelaide for a joke..."

Five more sleeps!

Five more sleeps and I'm off to Hawaii!

I've never travelled outside of Australia so this is a first for me - and another first that would simply not exist had I still be living in Adelaide...

So fucking excited!

Travelling with a couple of mates from work and spending 3 days on Oʻahu (in Honolulu) and then 4 days on Hawai'i (the Big Island) before flying back and spending the weekend in Sydney.

I'm going to be Twittering from my phone (provided it works and doesn't cost me stacks!) and I will be taking my camera as well as my extra memory card...

It's going to be awesome!

OFLC kicks the crap out of Michael Atkinson

LOL!

OFLC kicks the crap out of Michael Atkinson

My Brute

Here's a fun little flash game for you all!

My Brute!

Type your name into the box to create a Brute, and battle against my brute for internet supremacy!

V Festival review

At first I wasn't really interested in this years V Festival. Snow Patrol and Kaiser Chiefs are ok, but not enough to spend $150 to go see.

But then Madness and Human League were added to the line up, and I bought tickets immediately! I even talked Ritters into coming over to it from Adelaide! There was no way I could miss one of the most fondly remembered bands of my youth!

We rocked up to the showgrounds around 3:30 and moved into the Virgin Mobile (Green) Stage to see Temper Trap, and try and get a spot for special guest Vanilla Ice. Yes, he's always been kind of crap, but the nostalgic appeal of seeing him was too much.

But the crush was too much, as it seemed everyone had the same idea, so we moved outside to get a drink. I saw a bit of the band Elbow and they were alright, then headed back to Vanilla Ice. I found a great spot outside near a window with a view straight onto the stage, and when Vanilla Ice jumped on stage the crowd went mental. It's obvious that he was just as wrapped being on stage as we were to see him.

We wandered over to see M83, but I only saw one tune and it's faded from memory because ran over to see Madness...

Oh My Gosh!

Beginning with One Step Beyond, the crowd went mental and they are just as crazy and silly as I remember from the videoclips. They played pretty much all their hits; Our House, My Girl, House of Fun, and concluded with Must Be Love. They also did a cover of Max Romeo's I Chased The Devil (the tune Prodigy sampled for Outa Space). Their onstage antics were fantastic; the lead singer calling for security because he saw a hippy in the crowd; the guitarist trying to climb the scaffolding and being chased by the security, and smoking and drinking on stage.

After Must Be Love the crowd thinned out with most of the kids heading off to see Kaiser Chiefs, but as I went to grab a beer, the lead singer comes back on stage and those of us remaining were treated to an encore of (the song) Madness and Slow Boat To Cairo. Most of those remaining were the older people, and things got really silly here, with people skanking arm in arm and even a konga line snaking through the crowd!

All it all it was seriously one of the best performances I've witnessed.

Ritters and I became separated at this point, she went to see all of Kaiser Chiefs and I went to get more beer... I saw most of Kaiser Chiefs and liked them a lot, but have to admit the songs I knew well were all from videogames. I snuck off to see a bit of Snow Patrol, who were a little boring to be honest.

We reunited after Kaiser Chiefs and headed to see Human League. We got in just in time for Don't You Want Me. Their set was pretty cool and very 80s - I'm surprised how much of their lyrics I remember actually - and their encore was Electric Dreams, which was, needless to say, awesome.

Then we decided to see the Killers. Then decided that was a bad idea because they actually suck, and headed off home before the crowd.

V Festival is starting to become one of my favourite Australian festivals. It has a line up that appeals to a wide range of punters. I've seen 4 bands I thought I'd never see live - Madness, Pixies, Human League and Vanilla Ice, plus some cool acts like Temper Trap, Kaiser Chiefs, Gnarls Barkley, Jarvis Cocker and The Rapture. It's not nearly as packed as Big Day Out, and the crowd seems much nicer and less fucked up than other festivals.

Grow a pair, would you?

I'm so sick of politicians lacking a decent pair of nuts these days.

I really think the Defense Minister, Joel Fitzgibbon, should step down.

Personally I don't care if he's banging that chinese woman's entire family from her grandpa to her dog, he did they wrong thing (not notifying the Senate of his overseas trips) and was caught.

If he had a pair, he'd step down. After all, the government can tell him to go shove his resignation and get back to work.

That's far more noble and honest than to lie, then apologise simply because you got found out.

These career politicians have to go.

We need a system where people are voted in on their merits and skills, and not because of their Party standings.

Lily Allen – It’s Not Me It’s You

Well, hasn't our little Lily Allen grown up a bit over the past few years? Whilst her second album contains all of her venomous working class wit, and vociferous understanding of modern culture, yet it also reveals a softer, kinder Lily who's no longer completely immature and angry about absolutely everything.

The first song is Everyone's At It, where Allen rips into everyone for not paying attention to the drug culture we've created, and everyone from users to parents to politicians refusing to accept responsibility. The Fear is all about our obsession with celebrity, and mostly Allen's celebrity. Back to the Start is about mending relationships, as is He's Not There, where Allen forgives her absent father, saying such stuff as "I'm so pleased I never gave up on him, oh you wouldn't believe some of the things he did".

22 is about a girl who parties through the 20s and finds her future unpromising unless she gets a man and settles down. Who'd Have Known and Chinese are actual love songs, insomuch as she's singing about enjoying being with an individual. She's even singing about God with the song Him, wondering what he thinks of all this. All of these songs contain deep lyrics and motives suitable to a Bob Dylan type song, but are wrapped up in such amazing bubblegum pop, and I'm just not sure if it's sublime or ridiculous.

But then Allen drops her smarts with Not Fair, a whiney number about her man not being good in bed, and Never Gonna Happen about dumping a guy who just keeps hanging on. Yeah yeah, we get it; all men are pricks, whatever. And Fuck You is a happy little sing-along aimed at George Bush, who she calls evil, racist, homophobic and dumb. And whilst that may be true, she could have said it a little more intelligently.

It's Not Me It's You is a great second album, showing however unlikely, Lily Allen has staying power. If you've never liked her accent and overall vibe you're not going to really get into this either, but the music is poppy and fun, her voice still melodic yet brash, and it's just an enjoyable album.

3 Stars

More bands I've seen

I thought I better add to the list bands I've seen as my memory ain't what it used to be ;)

These are all from the last two or so years...

Bloc Party
Billy Bragg
Bjork
Cypress Hill
Devo
Dizzee Rascal
Funkoars
Good Buddha
Gorilla's Sound System
Headless Chickens
Jungle Brothers
Mark Ronson's Version
Midnight Juggernauts
Nine Inch Nails
Pendulum Live
Pharcyde
Public Enemy
Q-Tip
Rage Against The Machine
Regurgitator
Roy Ayres
Sarah Jones & the Dap Kings
Stevie Wonder
The Bamboos
The Presets
The Stranglers
UNKLE

Melbourne Earthquake

So, this earthquake occurs tonight...

but funnily enough it occurred at the exact same time as I started up a game, so I thought it was just my subwoofer being too loud and shaking the desk

The BPA – I Think We're Gonna Need A Bigger Boat

Norman Cook drops the Fatboy Slim moniker and presents a varied album of not-quite dance but still catchy and often fun tracks, in the guise of The BPA (Brighton Port Authority) – I Think We're Gonna Need A Bigger Boat. Some of the quality dips below that of the best of Palookaville, whereas others are shining examples of Norman Cook at his bes

Without a doubt the stand out track is Toe Jam with David Byrne and Dizzee Rascal. This calypso inspired load of nonsense is Cook channelling Talking Heads incredibly well, with Dizzee's brief cameo being brilliantly placed. Other tracks which really pleased my ear were the jangly guitars on He's Frank with Iggy Pop, and the very Bloc Party sounding Local Town with Jamie T on guest vocals.

One unexpected highlight is So It Goes, a 70s inspired soul jam with gospel organs and Olly Hite's quite impressive voice belting out. Another is Seattle, an incredibly catchy pop number featuring the modestly named Emmy The Great. It's one of those songs that just gets stuck in your head for days. Jumps The Fence is the oddest song next to Toe Jam, with Connan Mockasin's strong New Zealand accent lending a further amount of surrealism to the track.

The middling songs come from Pete York on Dirty Sheets and dance DJ turned singer Ashley Beedle on Should I Stay Or Should I Blow. They're not terrible songs, but just don't have the impact of the other songs. However, Superman and Superlover are both slower tracks, and to my mind some of the weakest songs. Then again, I've never been able to get into Cagedbaby.

One of the biggest disappointments of the album is it has in clear writing on the cover the word "Lateef", yet he's not to be found anywhere on the album. Lateef saved Palookaville from complete condemnation, and his absence despite the advertising is sorely missed.

2 Stars

Stupid Survey

Survey:

1. My ex... probably still hates me...

2. Maybe I should... stop spending money on gigs!

3. I love... music.

4. People would say that I'm... better than you.

5. I don't understand why people... don't think like I do.

6. When I wake up in the morning... spend too long in the shower.

7. I lost my... lust for life.

8. Life is full of... broken dreams and unfulfilled promises... luckily none of mine!

9. My past is... full of mistakes and missed opportunities.

10. I get annoyed... often.

11. Parties are... a staple of my life.

12. I wish... I did all this 10 years earlier.

13. Dogs... are good for attracting women.

14. Cats... are selfish cunts - just like me.

15. Tomorrow... can wait.

16. I have a low tolerance... for people who can't tolerate others.

17. If I had 10 million dollars... I would get a ticket into space.

18. I'm totally terrified... I won't ever get to experience space travel.

19. My spouse... will have to be awsome.

20. I'm listening to... everything.

21. Outside... is there for the taking.

22. My car... is waiting to be bought... and for me to get a license .

23. Fish n chips... are best by the beach.

24. Music... is often the only thing worth living for.

25. I completely trust... no one.

26. I am thinking... it's late and I shouldn't be posting this crap.

27. This weekend I am... enjoying my free time. And playing videogames.

28. True love... is like the cake... a lie.

29. Down at the disco... I get my groove on.

30. Before I go to bed I... think about my friends and how much I miss them.

one word answers

OK, Maz sent me this via facebook.

Facebook allows you to import blogs as notes.

As I'm pretty lazy and rarely update my own blog, let alone have another one on facebook via the notes system, I thought I'd do that fancy-schmansy import thing.

So here it goes:

You're only allowed to post one word answers to these:

1. Where is your cell phone? pocket
2. Your significant other? nonexistant
3. Your hair? neat
4. Your mother? elsewhere
5. Your father? nonexistant
6. Your favorite thing? music
7. Your dream last night? coincidental
8. Your favorite drink? beer
9. Your dream/goal? spaceflight
10. What room you are in? computer
11. Your hobby? games
12. Your fear? celibacy
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? there
14. Where were you last night? concert
16. Muffins? occassionally
17. Wish list item? sex
18. Where you grew up? Adelaide
19. Last thing you did? crapped
20.What are you wearing? clothes
21. Your TV? off
22. Your pets? dead
23. Friends? fine
24. Your life? busy
25. Your mood? tired
26. Missing some one? nope
27. Car? nope
28. Something you're not wearing? watch
29. Your favorite store? online
30. Your favorite color? blue
33. When is the last time you laughed? today
34. Last time you cried? forget
35. Who will resend this? GAF
36. One place that I go to over and over? work
37. One person who emails me regularly? spambots
38. My favorite place to eat? everywhere
39. Why you participated in this survey? bored
40. What are you doing tonight? nothing

Friends

Pippa's post about friends made me want to post this, because I've been thinking about friends a lot too lately.

I think I'm a bit lonely in Melbourne. I've noticed it's really hard to make friends here. I would call my flatmate and a few people at work "friends", and that's about it.

In Adelaide it seems I went to a few gigs, meet a few people, and then became almost life-long friends with them. In Melbourne I'm lucky to meet the same group of people twice when I'm out.

I met this girl at a wedding in Adelaide, and yes, I won't deny there was an attraction (at least one way) but we went out together the next day, and had a ball together. I met some of her work friends, and I could tell pretty much instantly that if I was back in Adelaide, these people would become my friends.

Nothing like this has happened in Melbourne except with workmates. Which is fine, I work with some great people, but it's just weird to me it's like this. It's something I didn't plan on encountering when I moved here. I expected to go out, see the same people, hang out, get friendly and become part of "the group".

Yet it hasn't happened.

It's like that episode of Seinfeld when he's talking about making friends with people when you're older.

"When you get in your 30s, it's very hard to make a new friend. Whatever the group is that you've got now, that's pretty much who you are going with. It's as if you're not interviewing, you're not looking at any new people, you're not interested in seeing any applications for new friends. The fact of the matter is they don't know the places, they don't know the food, they don't know the activities. If you're introduced to a friendly guy at a club or a gym, it's like you want to say to them: Hey look, I'm sure you're a very nice person, you seem to have a lot of potential, but I'm just not looking for friends now.

Of course when you are a kid, you can be friends with anybody. There are almost no qualifications required. If someone is standing out in front of your house now, that's good enough, You walk out say hello -and before you know it you're jumping up and down on the bed! As children you can have almost anything at all in common and its good enough for a friendship - You like coke? I like coke. Great let's be best friends!"

This, and the fact I can relate my life to an episode of Seinfeld kinda freaks me out...

Pure Bliss

I just found a great webpage all about one of my favourite Adelaide bands...



Written by the extraordinarily talented and incredibly friendly Dave McCain (aka DAMC / Techione), it details the rise and unfortunate fall of this incredible band.

On top of that, Dave's got their two eps available for download!

Website Updated

Well, as per usual I've been a little slack in keeping my website updated.

So this weekend I've gone and updated it all just for you!

I've added all my CD reviews from 2008, as well as updated the Interviews section with the work I've done for inthemix.com.au including my interview with Portishead's Geoff Barrow

Enjoy!

Top Shit of 2008

Yeah, I know it's a little late, but here are my top ten lists for 2008

Top 10 Video Games (all formats)
There are many games that maybe should be on this list, but I simply haven't played them so can't make judgement.

1. Fallout 3
2. Fifa 2009
3. Left 4 Dead
4. GTA IV
5. Saints Row 2
6. Grid
7. Fable 2
8. Civilization Revolution
9. NHL 09
10. Braid


Top 10 CDs
Again, these are CDs I've listened to / own / reviewed.

1. The Bamboos - Side Stepper
2. Baobinga & ID - Big Monster
3. CW Stoneking - Jungle Blues
4. The Heavy - Great Vengeance and Furious Fire
5. Sharon Jones & Dap Kings - 100 days, 100 nights
6. Downsyde - All City
7. Belleruche - The Express
8. Mr Scruff - Ninja Tuna
9. Primal Scream - Beautiful Future
10. DubXanne - Police in Dub

Another year been and gone!

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and all that.

My Christmas was pretty much a debacle, again.

I wanted to have Christmas with my mum and my aunt Laurine (her real sister) and my blood cousins.

On the hour long train ride to Gawler to meet my mum, who now lives in Saddleworth, my 4 year old reliable companion, my iPod, decides to die.

As an aside I also think it was stolen from my bag at the airport - but sucks to be them for getting a broken ipod!

Going on the old train line to Gawler Central brought back a load of memories - it's one I used to be intimately familiar with - but I was amazed at the amount of change that has occurred in the last 10 years too.

On the way to Ardrossan my mum tells me my cousins won't be coming... which annoys me no end as I could have caught up with my other family instead! So I had Xmas with my mum, my aunt, and my aunt's crazy friends - all about 60 years old and with whom I had nothing in common with. They were nice people, but still, I obviously would have preferred to be elsewhere.

I stayed at mums on Xmas Day eve, and the next day she went to drive me back to Gawler so I could catch the train back to Adelaide. She had little petrol, so we did the normal thing and went to the petrol station. However, the petrol station had no petrol either, and wasn't expecting the trucks to arrive until Mid morning. And the nearest petrol station was too far away to risk driving to, because there would have been a good chance it would have been closed for the boxing day holiday...

Worse still, I had to be back in the city by midday for what I consider my REAL Xmas celebrations - the ones with my friends from school, the ones we do every year with this year being even more special as one of whom was back from the USA and another over from WA...

Luckily the one bus which runs every two days from Far North SA to Adelaide just happened to be coming at the same time in the morning - If I had chosen to go any earlier or later I would have been stuck in Saddleworth.

I got on the bus, paid $20 and arrived 2 hours later in the city, then had another half hour trip to where I was staying...

Then, when I went to Stef's house for that Xmas, the Metroticket people who I had phoned earlier to enquire about buses told me the wrong number, and I had to walk for about 20 minutes from the wrong road to the right road!

Luckily, the rest of my trip to Adelaide was fucking awesome.

Renee & Paul's wedding was splendid, and I met a really nice girl there too! We went out again after that, and had heaps of fun with her and her crazy workmates. It was weird being in Adelaide and hanging out with a bunch of people I didn't know at all, but heaps of fun at the same time.

I also cuaght up with pretty much everyone I wanted to catch up with at Summer Break - lots of people I didn't expect to be there were there. It was awesome drinking, dancing and chatting with friends there.

That's my only issue with Melbourne - I don't have a regular crew here. There's a few guys from work I hang out with, but they're not as passionate as I am about music and gigs. So I always go out by myself - which I don't mind - but sometimes it would be nice to have friends here who had the same passion for music and gigs like I did in Adelaide.

Writing letters again

GOD DAMN IT!

I'm meant to be playing videogames, not writing to letters to clueless fucks about them.

After watching this YouTube video, I had to write a letter to YMA - people who, incidentally didn't hire me, because I confessed to liking videogames in my interview. Obviously it's an organisation that doesn't value truth and integrity...

Dear Sir or Madam

Recently on the ABCs Stateline program, your representative said "the interactive aspect of video games heightens the effect [of desensitisation of violence]"

Please show me ONE properly conducted, long term, scientifically proven, peer reveiwed report where the interactive nature of videogames has a greater effect of aggression in Children than any other media.

Apart from Craig Anderson's "research" (paid by the NIMF so about as "unbiased" and "scientific" as an report refuting climate change by a Mobil scientist - he's been discredited numerous times) every single search I have conducted reveals either a non-correlation, or even negative correlation. For example The BBFC discovered:

• gamers appear to forget they are playing games less readily than film goers forget they are watching a film because they have to participate in the game for it to proceed. They appear to non-games players to be engrossed in what they are doing, but, they are concentrating on making progress, and are unlikely to be emotionally involved;
• violence in games, in the sense of eliminating obstacles, is built into the structure of some games and is necessary to progress through the game. It contributes to the tension because gamers are not just shooting, they are vulnerable to being shot and most gamers are concentrating on their own survival rather than the damage they are inflicting on the characters in the game. While there is an appeal in being able to be violent without being vulnerable to the consequences which similar actions in real life would create, gamers are aware that they are playing a game and that it is not real life;

with the head of the BBFC saying "We were particularly interested to see that this research suggests that, far from having a potentially negative impact on the reaction of the player, the very fact that they have to interact with the game seems to keep them more firmly rooted in reality. People who do not play games raise concerns about their engrossing nature, assuming that players are also emotionally engrossed. This research suggests the opposite; a range of factors seems to make them less emotionally involving than film or television."

Dr. Cheryl Olson, author of the book Grand Theft Childhood says "The biggest fear of clinicians and the public alike—that violent video games turn ordinary children and adolescents into violent people in the real world—is not borne out by the data. Analyses of school shooting incidents from the US Secret Service⁵ and the Federal Bureau of Investigation National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime⁶ do not support a link between violent games and real-world attacks".

So, I'd like to ask why your organisation keeps peddling this mis-truths about videogames to the media?

I'm not going to argue the media has no effect on people - it has even been found that scriptural violence sanctioned by God can increase aggression in people. But I wonder, does your organisation rail against people taking children to Church or exposing them to Christian music and film as much as they do against videogames??

I also wrote to Mick Atkinson for his stupid decision to not support a public consultion on videogames getting an R18+ rating, which he has since renegged on... flipflop out of office, Achyface!

Dear Mr Atkinson,

I would like to know why you have withdrawn your support for a discussion paper and public consultation process about the R18+ rating for videogames in Australia.

I understand your position on videogames and know quite a few people in the wider community share those views. I happen to think the evidence used to support your and similar views is circumstantial, and not backed up by proper scientific nor social research.

However, I know that no matter how well reasoned my arguments I will not change your view. But that is why we live in a democracy; we are allowed to have opposing views and are allowed to express them publicly, no matter how misinformed they may be.

However, the point of this letter is to understand why your support of the public consultation of this matter has suddenly been pulled, especially in light of the draft material you have received.

Can you please help me to understand why you think you are allowed to express and enforce your views on this matter, but feel that ordinary Australians should have no say whatsoever?

Labor's website reads: "we believe that a nation should be governed in the broader interests of all, not in the sectional interests of a few" and yet here you are, denying Australians a right to be involved in an important debate on censorship and ratings for reasons which are hitherto unfathomable.

It seems to go totally against the democratic processes of this country and moreover against the principles of the Labor party, and completely contradicts the notions of fairness and equality, the belief in "a fair go for all", the underpinnings of the Labor Party.

I look forward to your reply.

I'm also drafting a letter to Stephen Conroy, Minister for Communication, for his moronic decision to make isps filter internet traffic.

*sigh*

I recently heard the word "Kindargarchy", defined as:

a society increasingly dominated by the needs of children, or rather by the extraordinarily inflated needs we have come to attribute to them.

And it's so apt! I'm sick of these people screaming "won't someone think of the children!" when destroying our rights as human beings and the future of these children.

Because I AM thinking of the children.

I'm arguing for their right to be treated as adults and be able to speak, read, see and play what they like when they are older.

Yeah, well I'm a bad blogger, ok?

Yeah, I know I'm a bad blogger.

Because I don't blog about crap that doesn't matter, like feelings and shit, I don't really have much to say. And I could get worked up over a million things, but I can't be fucked any more. All the ranting and complaining about the world won't change it, so I don't bother to comment on it any more.

Even on forums and such where normally I'll be attacking this or defending that, I can't be bothered so much any more. It wastes time and drains my mind energy, or some shit.

If you really want to know what I've been saying about this or that, you can check up on me on the Gawker network, as I comment on their stories quite regularly... Also I'm still writing / reviewing for inthemix, xboxworld and now Time Out Sydney so read them too.

As to what's been happening - well, I got promoted for one - now I'm assistant producer. It's a lot different to QA Lead - I don't have to work late much. In fact, I don't play the game as much, either.

I had a DJ gig at Bimbo Deluxe the other week which went really well, and I'm hoping to get another soon.

I saw Stevie Wonder last week. It was absolutely amazing. Then I saw Roy Ayers, who was also very good.

And that's about it for this update...

Expect the next one in a few months :p