The Plunge

I resigned from my work the other week!

I have one week left at my work!

HOLY SHIT!

I've got several meetings this week to try and round up work!!!

This is a HUGE CHANGE in my life!

I am so happy :)

Didn't get the film

The producer just called and so I didn't get that feature film gig. Oh well. Them's the breaks.

It's actually a huge relief. I think it would have been a nightmare to work on.

Plus it means I get to go to my brother's wedding for the period of time I had scheduled originally, so it's all good :)

I had a feeling in me waters that I wouldn't get the film, and I would have been more surprised if I had got it. They have managed to get someone with more experience than me, so to be shortlisted is a big honour.

Far out

Still no word back on the movie, although they promised me I would find out at the end of last week. Grrrrrrrrrr........I have a feeling that they are looking for better ie more experienced editors.....in fact, I know they are, because I overheard a phone conversation the line producer was having when I was waiting in the production office last week. I heard him call an AFI award winning editor and ask her availability at the end of this year......Anywhoo...

In keeping with this theme of people being slack and not calling me back, it's now been 3 weeks since I took my problematic laptop into the Apple Service Centre. The diagnosis is that the LCD needs to be replaced. FUCKING HOPELESS they are. They aren't hassling Apple enough, and I'm way under warranty. Apple "Care" my arse. What shits me off, is that Apple have apparently run out of stock with this part and have yet to give the service centre an ETA. It's been 3 friggin' weeks now! How long does it take to get an ETA?!

Having done a search online for forums where other people have experienced this same problem with their laptop and a similar lack of service from Apple, I've come across a lot of unhappy people across the world. What is freaky is that they all seem to have experienced the same problem (multicoloured vertical pixel lines appearing down the screen) at roughly the same time. Surely, this is then a product defect and they should be recalling all those models back for part replacement?

I am about to lose my cool with this one!!!!

Killer Croc!!!! Crikey!!!! (RIP Steve)

ok, it's about time I reveal a little work secret I've been harbouring for a while, a potentially rather exciting and well-timed project for me, and that is that I have been shortlisted to edit a FEATURE FILM. holy shit!

and it's a thriller set in the aussie outback with a man-eating crocodile!!!

anyway, i've had several meetings with the producer and directors (yes, there's 2 of them! as if 1 isn't enough!!!) and I should find out tomorrow if I have the gig. if I get it, it means 3 months of seriously hard work from November onwards. and also a fair bit of juggling, as my brother is getting married in December in Malaysia......so there's a conflict there, as originally I had intended to go to Malaysia for 2 weeks. Not gonna happen if I get this film :(

so yes, as I said....I am going to find out tomorrow if I'm taken on board.....fingers crossed....legs, arms and eyes too.

OMG i went to idol last night OMG

hey, i wrote a review which has been published online at this interesting website:

http://www.aarondarc.com/poppsychology/

in order to read my article, you need to register as a member. it's a fantastic website which critiques popular culture.

go to the Cameo section - I wrote a little bit about my bizzaro experience last night under the name Cut Copy.



Above is a sign I was going to take into the studio, but Matt stopped me!!!!

OMFG GUESS WHO IS GOING TO OZ IDOL NEXT MONDAY!!!!

yayayayayayayyaya i won 4 tickets last week to the Monday night taping of Idol (it's the Verdict show)!!!!

how tragic is that!!!!!??????

I am going to make a sign!!!!

these are the slogans I am considering:

CAMILLA TO WIN

EVICT JOHN H

AUSTRALIAN IDOL MAKES ME THIN

DEAN LOVES DEAN

Matt, Pat and Wendy are coming with me so that will be cool! :)

Theeeeaattre

Last night I went to the Theatre to watch a fantastic play called "I Am My Own Wife". I saw it with Amanda at the Opera House (seems to be my regular haunt lately!). We met after work in The Rocks, and found a nice little pizza and pasta restaurant for dinner. Soooooooooo romantic :) hehe

Well, I think we both agreed that we had some of the best pizza everrrr there so check it out. I think it's called "Amo Roma". It's a bit swish - Pizza Slut it is NOT - but very good.

The play was AMAZING - so well performed by the one actor Jefferson Mays (who played every character). Well directed, lit, awesome production design etc etc. Really fabtastic. A couple more poofs and lesos in the crowd (the play is about a famous German tranny), so it was a nice mix from the usual upper middle class baby boomers in the audience.



Here is a photo of the set.

Graffiti art

This is a frame from a commercial I recently worked on. How cool is it?!! It's all chalk-drawings.

Which leads me to:

http://www.banksy.co.uk/

This is rather interesting stuff, this is the guy who recently pulled off the Paris Hilton stunt of replacing 400 of her CDs in the UK with versions he had remixed and repackaged. They are now being auctioned off on ebay for 800 bucks a pop.

I find his graffiti art really funny and disturbing. Someone recently told me that he's done stuff in Sydney...can't remember what though.

I particularly like the series of "fleamarket" paintings that banksy "remixes" - Monet's idyllic river setting becomes littered with discarded floating shopping trolleys, and country pathways with hulking security camera's standing erect by the side.

Would be cool to have a city covered in graffiti with political messages!!!

Ben Folds at the Opera House

I saw him perform with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra last week. It was the first time I had ever seen a singer/songwriter perform with a full-on orchestra backing them, so I was eagerly anticipating this gig. Plus the fact that the venue was the Sydney Opera House, in the Concert Hall. The last time I was there was to see Jewel perform in 2004 (I think) with her "0304" album and before that in 1980something when I sang in the school choir possibly for the Queen but let's not go there....

Ben's piano songs seemed to be well-suited to the big (and small) sounds of a full orchestra so it was a really good night. I had organised our seats (Anna and Kylie were my faghags that night) up in the boxes on the left-hand side. Days earlier I started to get worried that Ben's back might be facing us if the piano was placed the "wrong way", but the work experience guy pointed out that that might not be a bad thing, as we would get to see his hands at work. Which is how it ended up, but that was ok with me because he was fantastic to watch from behind (that sounds bad).

We got to see Ben's hands as he played the piano, and it was pretty cool to watch! He's also got this funny way of half sitting, half-standing up off his stool as he plays. Rockstar that he is, he came out dressed in black jeans and t-shirt which was a contrast to the formal wear of the orchestra members.

Onto the songs, he delivered many classics from Ben Folds Five including "One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces", "Steven's Last Night in Town" and "Brick" which became this sprawling, emotional, chunky sounding orchestral piece. It was wonderful. If I was more attuned to musical genres I could describe how many of the original pieces were transformed into bigger different songs. But I'm an idiot so I can't.

He also played many songs from his recent solo career, having split from Ben Folds Five.

Highlights for me were the songs about his family (2 songs dedicated to his twins - one for his son (I forget the name) and a second for his daughter Gracie which appears on "Songs for Silverman") Both songs were delivered with what felt like to me real emotion, which appeared again when he sang "The Luckiest", a song written for his wife Frally who is an Adelaide girl he married in the 90s. Lucky Biatch. His voice quavered in all 3 songs at the start, eventually hitting the notes. Perhaps it was best then, that he did not perform "Late", a song he wrote for the recently departed Eliot Smith, whom Ben toured with. I was hoping he would sing it with the orchestra (it's one of my favourite tracks on "Songs for Silverman"), but probably best that he didn't. Someone would have had to pick me up off the floor I imagine.

Throughout the 2 hour performance, he peppered the songs with witty anecdotes about his life and his music career (boo to Sony), even recalling his infamous stoush with Geoff Harvey from the Midday Show in the early 90s when he was in Ben Folds Five. I remember the Chair-Throwing Incident because I was at home that day, waiting for afternoon uni classes to begin. One of the funniest things I've ever seen on daytime TV aside from "Passions".

But get this. The encore consisted of Ben composing an orchestral score for one of his songs ("Rock This Bitch") after he asked the audience to chat amongst themselves! He then proceeded to conduct the various sections, beginning with the cellos and double bases, moving onto the violins, percussion, wind instruments etc etc to build up this totally improvised orchestral piece to the song. How the hell they did this is beyond me!!! It was amazing! What talent!!! Kylie, who's also a singer/songwriter, whispered to me that not many orchestras in the world could do that! Totally impromptu!!!! OMG.

So a very good night it was, and to top it off I saw Pat Rafter among the crowd :)

Ben Folds tonite!! and a great website

I'm seeing Ben Folds and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra tonight. wow! review to follow soon after what I expect will be an amazing night.

Also, please check out this great website I have been visiting on a daily basis.

http://www.aarondarc.com

The guy who runs it is so smart, aware and funny. It sure beats so much of the other shit out there.

Natarii

I got to chat with Natalie on skype this evening! yippee!!!! it's been waaaaay too long, as we used to chat a fair bit last year, but have become slack recently. so good to hear her voice and catch up. thank goodness for skype!!!

she's been in Japan for a few years now. I was lucky enough to stay with her at the beginning of 2005 and have her show me around Nakatsu (which is like Wagga Wagga). of course, I miss her dearly but am looking forward to her return to oz for Christmas.

here's some pics of the hailstorm which hit parts of Sydney this afternoon!!!!! amazing stuff! i've never seen a hailstorm last that long.



it was impossible to work during that time because the noise on the roof of the warehouse was deafening. plus the fact that everyone at work was running up and down the stairs taking photos of the streets below.

OMG Ben Folds with the Sydney Symphony

I got tickets this morning. yay!

and i am gonna clean up the Ben Folds merchandise store! :) i hope they sell Ben Folds undies.

he is playing at the Opera House, in the Concert Hall. I saw Jewel there at the same venue a couple of years ago. She was fantastic. Basically played her guitar and sang there on the stage by herself, no support band.

Jewel was amazing, what a voice. Nevermind the trailertrash 4 inch high stiletto heels, mini-skirt and bangs with fringe. That was after her hippie phase and obviously her slutty phase with her second last album.

Reminds me I need to get her latest album....

Dirty Three

saw them on Saturday night at the Metro - always liked their songs, ever since discovering them through the aussie flick "Praise", to which they contributed some stuff. i quite liked their last album, which actually had vocals on it, although they didn't have a singer the other night.

i always find it amazing that just three people can produce such extradinary sounds - the combination of the bass guitar, drums and violin (sometimes the mandolin) were just fantastic...the guy on the vioin, unusually, performs with his back to the audience, quite often jumping up and down, leaping about the stage.

he also has a habit of introducing each song by it's name, and then going on to describe (with humour) what the song is meant to be about - pain, love-lost, loneliness, depression, a song for his wife rah rah rah....i say with humour, because he was quite a character, very Rasputin-like with his beard and crazy eyes - but i actually found the explanations a bit annoying, as i prefer to bring my own interpretation to the music rather than have someone tell me what it's supposed to be about. anyway. was still a good night, apart from the fuckers talking in front of us at the start of the night.

i didn't buy a Dirty Three teatowel though.

Scottish Twee

Saw one of my favourite bands Belle and Sebastian the other night. It was a fun gig. I had seen them a few years ago, but this time I was "seated" and not on the dance floor. Our group had good seats though and I had (mostly) an uninterrupted view of the band on stage.

Unfortunately I can't help comparing the 2 gigs, because the first one was so terrific and a delight. There's a couple of reasons why the other night didn't live up to my expecations, however I still enjoyed it.



Firstly, I couldn't really get into the last album "The Life Pursuit". It feels too 60s, Beach-Boys to me and a bit over produced. I also missed their sadder songs (such as "I Fought In A War", and at the opposite end their OTT geeky pop tracks ("Step Into My Office Baby"). There's a few gems on the current album - "To Be Myself Completely" is my favourite....i spose in general, i couldn't really get into this latest effort.



Also, Stuart the lead singer, seemed a bit off (i think he even apologised at the start), and he didn't seem as pepped as the last gig. However, there were some gold moments - one being a cute, young lass being invited up on stage to dance to "Jonathan David" as Stuart and Stevie pretended to fight over her. Also, i loved it when Stuart bought out a piece of paper which contained the lyrics to "Another Sunny Day"....."There's a lot of lyrics" he proclaimed as the audience laughed.

Stuart's hipless, nerd dancing always delights me, as did Stevie's robotic moves during "Electronic Renaissance" (which had a cool light show and projection set-up, perhaps the best of the night).



I also loved the performances of the rest of the band, in particular Beans, Sarah and Mick (a bit cute, while he danced and played the tambourine during "The Boy With The Arab Strap"). They always never cease to amaze me, with their talent and ability to pick up various instruments during the gig.

However, what was not cute were the 2 geeky uni student girls who begged Stuart to let them up on stage at the end. they wanted to dance, and he asked them to mime to "Judy And The Dream of Horses". he joked they were lucky the band wasn't going to do "The Chalet Lines" (a song about rape). anyway, these 2 girls were tragic, generating audible groans from the audience with their sad dancing (the one on the left couldn't even dance). I've even read other reviews online bagging out these chicks. haha.

people kept yelling out requests during the show, which implied that the overall feeling was that the new stuff was not as well-liked...this actually got irritating, especially the 2 boys in our row who kept screaming out "Seeing Other People". admittedly, this is one of my favourite tracks, but it's up to the band to sing what they want!!! then sum idiots starting screaming out requests for covers (B & S did A-Ha's "Take On Me" last time haha). in fact, i've just discovered a whole bunch of covers they have done, including Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean", Bowie's "Space Oddity" and Buggles "Video Killed The Radio Star"!!!! gold!!!!

all in all, it was a pretty good gig - over 2 hours - and value for my hard-earned dosh. i look forward to seeing them again and again....

oh and I also bought a new tee while i was there, which has the cover of The Life Pursuit. yay.

Couple-a-things

it's been a while since i posted, oh the shame, so i'll try and be more diligent with this thing. the biggest reason why i've been a slackarse is because i've been busy with work AGAIN. had one of those months where it seemed to consume my life again and not much socialising or catching up with friends.....grrrrrr....

anyway, i was working on some decent stuff, with directors i really like (as opposed to the ones i can't stand) and are becoming regular clients (including a feature film director) so it's all good. i got to work on some really cool stuff.....ads with animated characters in them....another with a celebrity.....some more Maccas UK stuff....and i've got a really cool ad coming up soon which will just look amazing i think (lots of cool visual effects).....and another short film i'm just about to begin which has lots of drag queen musical numbers in them. very camp and very funny. that will take up some time, but i am hoping to be able to work on that on my lappy (laptop) at home.

well, the most exciting thing is that I am an Unky A again!!! snaps for my sister and her partner! haha....she had another beautiful little girl last week......so now i have 2 gorgeous nieces to love and spoil :) the new baby seems quite SERENE compared to the first one, who was and is as the Japanese politely refer to as "genki" i.e. enthusiastic...... the new baby sleeps well and even her cry is less raucous. i think the 2 little girls will turn out like chalk and cheese...

other big news: my work is moving! my boss has decided to make a change and move closer into the city.......Surry Hills/East Syd/Darlo area....which is cool i think......so i'm looking forward to that happening in the next couple of months. i'm gonna miss working where we are right now, as i like this area too but i won't miss the deros and truant kids who run amuck in these parts. no doubt there'll be new deros and truant kids loitering around our new workplace...

just one gig coming up, that's Belle and Sebastian in June, and i'd like to see Jose Gonzalez, but no-one wants to come with me so far! :( not happy jan...maybe i'll just go by myself and look like a nigel no-friend.

STERN

So I was chatting to a work colleague the other day, and our conversation turned to some of our other workmates (surprise, surprise) and I mentioned that a particular person was giving me attitood. My workmate said that it might have something to do with me being "stern" on occasion.

Um, ME? Stern???

Their comment sort of took me by surprise, but after thinking about it I realised that I MIGHT come across as a bit bossy at work. However, I'd like to use the terms "no-nonsense" or "focussed" ;)

My dear Sister said she could see me being "stern" at work and that I probably inherited that trait from Dad.

*sigh* I will try to laugh a bit more at work...

I *heart* Sigur Rós

Last Wednesday I saw the best gig EVERRRRRRRR - I have to roll the R's because this band is from Iceland, regarded as one of the strangest countries.

My alltime favourite band Sigur Rós came back to Sydney - they were here last August and I missed them :( - and I saw them last Wednesday night. They were fantastic, so much so that I was almost in tears. I'd read reviews prior about their effect on audiences and was sceptical about reading people who were reduced to crying or curling up into foetal positions at their shows. Hmmmmmm, but guess what happened to me!?

Firstly, they had a string quartet, also from Iceland, called Amina supporting them. They were pretty good too. Their music was quite lovely, a nice introduction to Sigur Rós in terms of their delicate, lullaby-like quality....The group consisted of 4 women, all whom looked very pixie-like.....one had big, fluffy hair like Janet Frame in "An Angel At My Table". They all wore red dresses, looking kind of nerdy-like and bookish. I said to Ang that they were possibley the geeky girls in high school who practiced their violin and glockenspeil during lunchtime.......I bought their EP afterwards and it's really good! Looking forward to their album...



Well, when Sigur Rós finally came on stage, Ang and I were upstairs trying on the hoodies at the merchandise stall. As soon as we heard them we raced down to our seats (4 rows from the front behind the dance-floor). I felt shivers up and down my spine. The band appeared behind a white mosquito-net-like fabric which was drawn across the stage. The lighting was amazing as were the video projections thrown across the netting. It was like watching a show from another universe or planet.

Onto the music - which was so beautiful beyond words....Jonsi, the lead singer - well his voice is heartbreakingly beautiful. He sings mainly in falsetto, in Hopelandic (an invented language) and plays his bass with a cello bow. The combination of his sweeping, alien-like vocals with the eerie notes made from his unique way of playing his guitar are just glorious. I've officially got a crush on Jonsi now, which is allowed because he's gay. He's also blind in one eye, and in need of a good feed but I still admire him *heart*

They played a good setlist I thought - mostly from their latest album "Takk.." and a few songs from their earlier albums "( )" and"Agaetis Byrjun". They did however miss 2 of my favourite songs off "Takk..." which I was a bit disappointed with but oh well. It was pretty much a perfect evening. It has taken me days to come down from the high of the night so that I could even write this blog entry.



(photos not from my camera...nicked from the official website)

Little Saigon

funny. i write a blog entry during the week which mentions the film "Little Fish" which was set in Cabramatta, and then I end up spending most of today there on the invite of a friend.

Waz, his girlfriend Tash, and another friend Melissa and I drove out to Cabramatta this morning for yum cha. Actually, Waz drove us, which was wonderful so I could sit back and enjoy suburbia in all it's glory. The drive took about 40 minutes, so we were there around 11ish. Having finally found a space in the carpark (good spotting Tash!) we wandered over to the restaurant which Warwick had been to several times before. There was no numbering system to getting a table, so after 10/15 minutes and several people pushing in, we eventually got our table (communal on a larger table) and sat down to some of the best yum cha I've ever had. Yumcity!

We feasted on the usual yum cha fare, but also discovered some new things. Perhaps Viet-Chinese hybrid dishes? After gorging ourselves on so many wonderful things, we were handed the bill of $43. *shock, horror* ONLY FORTY-THREE BUX??? If we had dined in the city, or more "classier" restaurants, I am sure we would have paid at least 10 dollars more.

Waz, in his email invite to us said we could do a bit of Cate-Blanchett-spotting at lunch, and apparently he wasn't joking. The Blonde One has apparently been spotted eating yum cha at the same establishment we were in, no doubt having discovered the suburban gem whilst shooting (up) the film "Little Fish".

After the lunch, we ventured outside into the crisp autumn air and walked towards the plaza. Mmmmmm, the smells reminded me of Saigon and I felt a comforting sense of security.....SECURITY?????? Afterall, this was the place from my childhood which everyone seemed to fear. I remember Mum, going out to Cabramatta to buy food when I was a young teenager and Dad freaking out. Granted, back then things were different I suppose and I remembering feeling frightened when I went with her. Today, I felt no fear because the plaza seemed no different to any other suburban shopping district, albeit filled with Vietnamese faces and shops. It felt good to be there - again I seemed to blend into the crowd I suppose...I think....

We wandered up and down the shopping strip, occassionally venturing in to any shop that took our fancy. Melissa bought some new jeans at a clothes shop and a blue (not white) salad spinner at a discount variety store. Waz and Tash bought various bargains at the aforementioned shop. I remembered I needed to buy an 18th birthday present for my cousin, but couldn't find anything in the shop that didn't look CHEAP :(. Waz and I discovered $70 mens suits on sale, and sequiny or see-thru men's shirts which "could" look good at next year's Mardi Gras.....

I ended up buying some delicious custard cakes ($3 for 15!) fresh off the hot plate. OMG yum. I also bought a HUGE drink of fresh sugar cane, mixed with orange and ice. 2 bux is all that cost!!! they don't sell 'em like that at fucking Boost Juice!

All in all, a good day.....

Is Sarah Blasko Australia's Best Female Singer?

The ARIA charts would say otherwise, and claim that the Kylies, Kaseys, Missys, Deltas and Amiels are better - but I beg to differ. I'm sorry, this gets me angry, because I think Kasey Chambers music is fucking shit. I'd rather swallow razor blades than listen to her strangle a song like a dying chicken. AND she had the gall to try and cover Cyndi Lauper's "True Colours"!!!! Biyartch! And Delta's music has always been so predictable, plus she dated the Poo, he of the Dumb Eyes and a zillion tennis comebacks that rivals Pat Cash (enuf said).

Seeing Sarah Blasko perform last night at the Melbourne-Is-The-Centre-Of-The-Universe, I mean Closing Ceremony of the Commonwealth Games just makes me so mad that she's underappreciated in this bloody country. She has the best voice, so sweet with wonderful tones and such feeling in her singing. She also has the strangest dance moves on stage - kudos to her in my books!

Sarah performed her rendition of Neil Finn's "Don't Dream It's Over" amidst a flurry of "snowflakes" and bad rock-eistedford-like dancers and choreography. Sarah was also flanked by 2 strange-looking, antique-like instruments that had to be wheeled out. However, channel 9's coverage was shite, and we barely got to see what these 2 interesting instruments actually looked like. At the end of her performance she picked up a massive glowing ball, that resembled the Mood Lamp that S____ gave me a few birthdays ago. Sarah had the massive audience entranced with her haunting, beautiful cover of the Crowded House classic.

Seeing her again, reminded me of her fantastic version of Cold Chisel's "Flame Trees" from last year's movie "Little Fish". I can't remember if her version is in the actual movie, but it's on the CD soundtrack. She does that wonderful song justice.

Having listened to the song again tonight, I'm amazed at the poetic economy of the very first lyrics....

"The kids are driving and Saturday afternoon just passed me by
I’m just savouring familiar sights
We have a history, this town and I…"

Straight away we understand that the man is old enough to have kids, and that he is visiting the town he grew up in.....the sense of regret is planted early for the rest of the song.....

And this reminds me that one of my favourite moments from film last year was in "Little Fish" when Cate Blanchett's character enters the school hall and listens to the school choir sing "Flame Trees". The song is haunting (there's that word again) because young children are singing it. It's a pivotal moment in the film, and the song perfectly sums up the emotions within her character at that point in time. Just beautiful. Like Sarah Blasko.

Oh Danny Bhoy...

Saw the Scottish-Indian comedian last Saturday night with Angela and Robert and it was pretty good. As I predicted I didn't find him as side-splittingly funny as Margaret Cho, but he still provided a good night of laughs. The night was even being recorded for an upcoming DVD, which was kinda cool but also annoying because they had big lights shining into the audience and also a camera on a crane hovering over us, which sometimes obscured the stage. Like - get the fluck out of my way stupid camera!

Danny's material was pretty good and somewhat "mildly offensive" (he introduced himself this way off stage at the start). It seemed like noone was out ot range of fire for his jokes - French, Germans, Irish, Scottish, Aussies, Gays, Westies, Pretentious people - they all copped it from him during the night.

He's also got an amount of physicality in his comedy routines - silly walks, expressions etc etc. All of which are somewhat helped by his good looks and charming manner. One could sense all the girlies in the audiences swooning over this handsome, funny man....myself included. Nothing more attractive than someone with good comic timing and a sense of the ridiculous!

I would have bought myself some Danny Bhoy undies in the theatre foyer, only they weren't selling any :(

JB Hi-Fi Vice

A few months ago I discovered the perils of shopping at JB Hi-Fi. I blame Angela for introducing me :)

It's a film buff's playground, with the best collection of DVDs I've ever seen. Recently I spent hours (literally) going through the collection. As well as the general collection, they have areas allocated to different genres - western, sci-fi, children's, documentary, horror, foreign and asian. They also have a huge section dedicated to TV shows. It's amaaaaazing. I get so excitement when I go there.

However, I'm always on the lookout for bargains, and rarely purchase full price DVDs. Most I buy are either $9.95 or $12.95, and I've picked up some good ones too - Clueless ("whatever" special edition), The Sweet Hereafter, Firefly - complete first (and only) season, Eat Drink Man Woman, The Three Colours Trilogy, Can't Buy Me Love (!). I really think the store needs to have some sort of frequent buyers card...

I'm quickly running out of storage for these DVDs as well.....Not Good. At some point I may have to invest in compactors!!!

Gigs

Got a lot of good gigs coming up these next few months. Going to see Danny Bhuoy, an English funny man at the Enmore next Saturday night. Saw him a few weeks ago on "Spicks and Specks" (or was it "The Glasshouse"?) and he was pretty amusing. Don't think he will reach Margaret Cho ability to make me cry from laughter, but we shall see...

Also, got tickets to see Sigur Ros (gasp) and my fave Scottish songsters Belle and Sebastian in April and June, so I'm hanging out to see them. I saw B & S (sounds like an expensive sound system) last year, and they were so much fun. I missed Sigur Ros last year, and was determined not to repeat my mistake this time round....

I've been spreading the love, buying a Sigur Ros t-shirt online for my niece, and a Belle and Sebastian "I'm a Cuckoo" t-shirt for my new niece/nephew.....awwwwwwwwwww......gotta get them interested early!

Smackfest

Next week is a short film festival called Tropfest, which is apparently the world's largest short film festival. A short film I edited the week between Christmas and New Year's has been selected as one of the 16 finalists. It's pretty amazing, considering that the festival received roughly 700 film entries. The odds for getting selected are pretty low indeed...

Anyway, the film has been selected and I get to go! Yippee!!!! I've never actually been before, fear of big crowds and awful short films you see. But this year I have got a VIP pass to sit in the Special Section at the front, so I'll be avoiding all the riff-raff :)

I wonder which big hollywood celebrities will attend this year? I hope Samantha Morton makes an appearance. She rocks.

More Vietnam Pics

This woman was selling books and was HILARIOUS. We think she was deaf as she gesticulated with such enthusiasm. My friend bought the new Dan Connor book and the woman pointed to across the street at the Hotel Continental and tried to sell us "The Quiet American". She pointed at herself and mimed a film camera, then claimed she was in the film as an extra. Well, we guessed that is what she was trying to say....you can kinda see how expressive her face is. We took this pic from inside the cafe next door.....

Vietnam or bust

Thought you might be interested in some pics from my recent Vietnam holiday.

One of the highlights was attending a traditional Vietnamese cooking lesson and learning how to make our own feast of banana flower salad and claypot pork with ginger rice. Yum!

One of the lowpoints Natalie and I experienced was witnessing a dog-napping in Cholon (Chinatown District of Saigon). I'll never forget the screams of the dog as the dog-nappers stuffed it into a hessian bag and made for a quick getaway on a motorbike.

Speaking of which, there are literally hundreds of thousands of motorbikes in the city, which makes for fun trying to cross the road!





I went on a sampan boat in the beautiful Mekong Delta, held a python around my neck (it tried to strangle me!) and crawled through the famous Cu Chi tunnels on my hands and knees.



Rani and I became Sand Dune demons, sliding on sand sleds in Mui Ne. The sand dunes are spectacular!



I also ate the most wonderful Vietnamese food everyday (avoiding chicken at all costs).



We stayed at a beautiful resort in Mui Ne, and made friends with a sweet Vietnamese waitress named Huong.


On my final day, a taxi driver attempted to seduce me by playing "sexy" songs on his cd player - he bombarded me with songs like "Let's Get It Started", "Pretty Boy" and "I Am A Creature of the Night". My virtue remained intact :)


Most people thought I was Vietnamese, which made me feel even more guilty holidaying there as a "rich tourist". Vietnam is certainly not a wealthy nation. On a daily basis I encountered beggers on the street, some were children. Each time I tried to negotiate a better price at the various markets, I had to remind myself that I was haggling over at the most a few dollars :(