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.