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!