I returned yesterday eve from my six day tour of the north-west, notably Newman, or as I like to call it, Newmanium. 1200kms each way of shitty towns, dead kangaroos and the entire back catalogue of The Decemberists (as well as fifteen other mp3 cds in my car). A pleasant enough trip, and I have to admit, that the scenery was quite beautiful, but best observed from an air conditioned car travelling 110kmh.

( Trippy )

I recently voted in Triple J's hottest 100 of all time.
That's right, ALL TIME!

It was nigh on impossible, but I cut my shortlist of 65 songs to about 30. And then cut that down to the 10 I was allowed to vote for.

So here's my top ten of all time in no particular order (except alphabetical):

Bob Dylan - Subterranean Homesick Blues
David Bowie - Life On Mars?
The Decemberists - Sixteen Military Wives
Faith No More - Epic
Joy Division - Love Will Tears Us Apart
Monks - I Hate You
New Order - Temptation
Talking Heads - Psycho Killer
The Who - Baba O'riley
Velvet Underground - I'm Waiting For The Man

And here's the so-called 'short list':

Aphex Twin - Window Licker
Arcade Fire - Rebellion (Lies)
Billy Bragg - A New England
Bob Dylan - Subterranean Homesick Blues
The Clash - The Guns Of Brixton
Crowded House - Fall At Your Feet
The Cure - Close To Me
Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich - Hold Tight!
David Bowie - Life On Mars?
The Decemberists - Sixteen Military Wives
The Doors - Break On Through
Faith No More - Epic
The Glenn Miller Orchestra - In The Mood
The Hold Steady - Most People Are DJ's
James - Laid
Johann Pachelbel - Canon in D
Johnny Cash - Folsom Prison Blues
Joy Division - Love Will Tears Us Apart
Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers - Roadrunner
Link Wray - Ace of Spades
Monks - I Hate You
Okkervil River - Black
Pixies - Where Is My Mind?
Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea
New Order - Temptation
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Do You Love Me?
The Pogues - Fairytale of New York
Ray Charles - What'd I Say
The Stranglers - Golden Brown
Talking Heads - Psycho Killer
The Kinks - You've Really Got Me
The Who - Baba O'riley
The Who - My Generation
Velvet Underground - I'm Waiting For The Man

Hell yes who has a signed copy of The Decemberists latest album?
It is me. Not you. Unless you do have one. In which case that is also awesome!

In anticipation of getting my new car tomorrow, I cleaned out my old one (as I'm trading it in). While I know it is not anywhere near as messy as most other people's cars, I still managed to pull out the following:

-Purple towel (gift for Christmas to Jess from her father)
-Raincoat (handy for covering amplifiers when its wet and you've got a gig)
-Street directory
-Tool kit
-Jumper leads
-2m Cat5e cable (for when you have to do some emergency ethernet patching)
-Kettle cord (for amplifier)
-2 blue LED's that were in the boot until they annoyed me too much and I ripped them out
-Rubber leg for keyboard
-Golf ball from Fremantle Golf Course (what?)
-41 cds
-Program for first Mammalien
-Daft Punk ticket
-Invite for grandmother's 80th birthday celebrations
-Four car service receipts
-Driving permit (prior to being issued my actual license)
-Notepad and pen from Burswood
-Receipt for new HDD
-$19.05 in change
-Full bag of rubbish, consisting mainly of bottles of tea and empty Pall Mall cigarette packs (Jess that is ALL you).

Also, OMG NEW CAR TOMORROW.

I fucking love being in debt.

And to all those who thought the pictures of cars on lj (see also: Jason) was finally over, then here is what I just bought:



I drew that myself...

Stolen from Jess who probably stole it from me who stole it from Ben who stole it from someone else...

Step 1: Put your MP3 player or whatever on random.
Step 2: Post the first line from the first 20 songs that play, no matter how embarrassing the song.
Step 3: Post and let everyone you know guess what song and artist the lines come from.
Step 4: Strike through when someone gets them right.

1. Breaking rocks in the hot sun... Bobby Fuller Four - I Fought The Law niceyjimcares
2. The last of the repercussions died off real slow
3. Don't lost it, don't lose it. I wont come home 'cause you never hold my hand.
4. If you get down, gotta get up and when you get high, if you're on drugs... Snowman - You Are A Casino cadaverique
5. Off the pillow and into the air, I'm ready 'cause it's my day .
6. Ohhh dear, what if everything they say is true?
7. I don't care what you do, I'm getting out, no nothing ever shames me. Jimmy Eat World - Get It Faster uncomplicate_it
8. The harpy was the tops. Whose hair contained some red. The Fall - Sing! Harpy niceyjimcares
9. They found me in a florist, I was fried and out of focus.
10. You were just like me. You were one big bruise.
11. Birds come, then they go. Yeah I traded laughs...
12. Give me a home where the past won't pay no mind.
13. A problem, becomes a problem when you let down your friends, when you let down your people.
14. He said I'll protect like you are the crown jewels. Camera Obscura - Lloyd, I'm Ready To Be Heartbroken cadaverique
15. Was an honest man. Asked me for the phone. Tried to take control.
16. Kevin came home from school today with chipped tooth and blood on his shirt
17. Whatever happened to Leon Trotsky?
18. O come sweet life, wash clean my hands.
19. Oh so all my lovin' go's under the fog fog fog... Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Y Control uncomplicate_it
20. An address to the golden door, I was strumming on a stone again.

As a lover of music (read: I admit, certain music), I've listened to, and seen, a lot of bands.

However, nothing Ive seen can ever compare to the fucking awesomeness that was The Epic of Gilgamesh at the Bakery tonight. Blew my fucking mind, then put it back together again just so it could blow it again!

And according to Jake (one of the members), they'll be doing it again. So when they do, you must be there. YOU MUST.

This year my vote goes to:

Goldfrapp - Happiness
Kaiser Chiefs - Never Miss a Beat (25)
Kate Nash - Pumpkin Soup
Ladytron - Ghosts
Lykke Li - I'm Good, I'm Gone
MGMT - Kids (5)
Okkervil River - Lost Coastlines
The Grates - Burn Bridges (34)
The Hold Steady - Sequestered in Memphis
Vampire Weekend - Oxford Comma (30)

Vote now!
http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/hottest100/

---
Edit
Where each song came.

184 photos behind cut. Be warned! (They are smallish though)

( Read more... )

Returned home!

Trip was awesome. Totally fucking awesome.
The last days went as per the predictions made (by myself) in the previous post.

Something good better be happening tonight.

Les previous few days:

Sunday:
-Tried to find the most hidden museum in history. Succeeded only slightly, but couldnt find where to get tickets into it.
-Found that the fasion museum was closed until the end of the month. Blurgh.
-Went to the world's most dodgy (but awesome) markets. I couldnt work out why there was so many stores selling circuit breakers and fuses and the like. Then I realised they had probably stolen them straight out of someone elses fuse box. The markets were awesome though. There was a NES with ten games for only 20 euros. If I had room in my bag I would have bought it.

Monday:
-DISNEYLAND! Absurd and awesome and everything else all in one. Went on rides, saw our favourite cartoony characters. Brllnt. Also consumed the poorest excuse for a hot dog Ive ever seen. Also the most expensive one Ive ever seen.

Tuesday (today):
-Went to Notre Dame. Amazing.
-Visited Free P Star again. No fur, but Jess bought a couple dresses.
-Walked up to Place de la Republique so I could take a photo of "Boulevard Voltaire". Success!
-Went to Cimitaire de Passy. Not alot there. Walked back up to the Arc de Triomphe.
-Realised I had Decemberists on my phone so listened to Legionnaire's Lament whilst sitting on a balcony, smoking a cigarette in Montmartre. Sounds wanky, but it was pleasant.

LES PREDICTION FUTURE:
Rest of today:
-Go to the cafe from Amelie!
-Tacky tourist purchases from the Montmartre tourist district!

Wednesday:
-Shopping in every store that looks awesome along the Champs Elysées!
-Moulin Rouge!

Thursday:
-Board flight to Singapore. :(

Friday:
-Arrive in Singapore, transfer to flight home.
-Return home!

Update update update.

Wednesday:
-Visited the Pompidou. Modern art spectacular!
-Went to Free P Star. Its a cheapish vintage store. Jess found a fox fur but customs may not like it.
-Went to Bastille. Its not really a prison anymore. More of a giant obelisk.

Thursday:
-Versailles! Très fantastique. The chateau of the kings of France prior to the revolution. Beautiful rooms filled with amazing furniture. The only downside was the shitty Jeph Koons art installations in each room. Très merde.

Friday:
-Musèe d'Orsay. Or, museum of awesome (actual translated name...not really). More artworks including lots of the beards and glasses council and some Van Gogh, to name only a few. Aside from having a whole floor closed off it was quite good.
-Dali Museum. Further proof that Dali is crazy, but awesome.
-Wandered the Montmartre 'red light district'. Visited a few tame sex stores.
-Went to the local Friday street markets. Lots of awesome food. We bought a whole chicken and ate it for dinner.

Saturday (today):
-Catacombes! Fucking amazing beyond belief! 1.7kms (only a fraction of the total) of long passageways and bones! BONES! I took many photos.
-Musèe de Arts et Metiers. Another technical museum. Interesting, but I've seen alot of it before.

Plans for the rest of the trip include:
-Fashion museum and a museum of the French resistance during WW2.
-Eurodisney!
-Shopping!

And then, alas, we return.

More updates to the previous week.

Thursday:
-Had lunch in the vondelpark, which was pleasant. Saw more fatty pigeons.
-Visited to Rijkmuseum. Alot of it was closed off for repairs or something. Saw some good Rembrandts.
-Ventured over to the wonderous red light district (for the second time). The window girls still looked pretty bored. The sex stores are quite average. We found a decent fetish store but it was way overpriced.
-Went to the three story sex museum. Which was fucking hilarious. I took a photo of Jess next to a giant penis.
-Jess got stoned in a coffeeshop and we stumbled (read: she stumbled) back to the hotel. Hooray.

Friday:
-Caught the train to Cologne to meet Edda and partner. Edda was still on the way home when we arrived so we hung out with her partner Robert. He was cool.
-Edda finally arrived, got changed, then people came over and we commenced drinking.
-Went to a "Fetish Party" which was more just goths hanging out at a cafe.
-Smokey air in the cafe got to much so we wandered home.

Saturday:
-Edda and Robert took too many drugs so didnt arrive home until 5pm. We wandered around the city some.
-Went to the museum night later on. Museums full of drunk people at 2am is brilliant. Visited the Ludwig Museum (of modern art). Saw things by people like Warhol and Lichtenstein.

Sunday:
-Went to the chocolate museum that was right near Edda and Robert's place. AWESOME.
-Edda eventually got out of bed so we dragged them to the Carnival across the river. It was like sideshow alley at the royal show, except alot more cheesy. I forced everyone to go into "Das Aqua Labyrinthe". So lame.
-Took Edda and Robert out to dinner (sort of). Then returned to theirs and drank beer and coffee.

Monday:
-Caught the train to Paris. Returned to lovely Montmartre.
-Went and saw Okkervil River! So fucking good. Twice in a year now!

Tuesday (today):
-Went to the giant cemetary to see the graves of Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde.
-Went to the Eiffel Tower.
-Went to the Arc de Triomphe.
-Walked along the Champs Elysee.
-Went and got the tastiest maccaroons in the world from Laduree. So good.

Eight more days to go, which in theory shall include:
-A shitload more of Paris.
-A day trip to London.
-More food from Laduree.
-Moulin Rouge!
-Eurodisney! Cheese factor a billion!

More points so far!

Wednesday:
-Went to a modern art museum. Quite impressed. Especially by the design section.

Thursday:
-Caught the train to Berlin.
-Saw very little of Berlin as it was dark by the time we got there.

Friday:
-Wandered around Berlin. Saw Checkpoint Charlie, Brandenburg Gate and the Jewish War Memorial. Took a photo of this place next to Checkpoint Charlie called Snackpoint Charlie. Oh you witty Germans.
-Also, so many tourists in Berlin!

Saturday:
-Got up at an absurd hour and went to the airport.
-From the airport caught a bus to the plane that was built sometime in the sixties. Due to bad weather in Prague had to go back to the airport and wait two hours.
-Plane eventually took off.
-Went to Prague! Met father, and my brother Paul (who lives in Ostrava).
-Wandered around Prague haphazardly.
-Had dinner at a pub. Drank two pints of awesome (and awesomely cheap) beer. Then had a shot of Slipowitz (sp?). Felt drunk.

Sunday:
-Wandered around Prague somemore. Climbed a mountain. Saw a church
-Went to the most awesome club in the entire world and I do not care what you say about some place you went to that you thought was awesome this place was better. See here: http://www.crossclub.cz/
-Tried to see some psychobilly bands but it sold out so we sat in some side room drinking beer and listening to reggae and reggae-like music.

Monday:
-Took a day trip to Kutna Hora to see the bone palace.
-Wandered around forever but then found it and it was FUCKING AMAZING. Photos upon my return because I cant ftp any photos to my server and words do no justice.

Tuesday:
-Got up at a tremendously ridiculous hour and caught a plane back to Berlin.
-Wasted alot of time in the Hautbahnhof waiting for our train to Amsterdam.
-Spent six and a half hours on the train to Amsterdam.
-Finally got to Amsterdam.

Wednesday (today!):
-Realised that Amsterdam is fucking beautiful.
-Went to the flea market. It was much like a big freo markets but mixed with joynt venture (marijuana leaf on everything), but out in the open.
-Went to the museum of Dutch resistance. All about the German invasion of Holland and its effects.
-Met Banana Joe, a french hobo who'll tell you the history of Amsterdam, give you directions, and then ask for a couple coins. This guy should be made Mayor of Amsterdam because he was totally awesome and totally deserved the few euros I gave him.

Currently we're sitting in a laundromat that also has internets! Hooray.
Tonight Jess gets stoned and watches cartoons in Dutch.

Back in Berlin, albeit briefly. We've got three hours to waste until our train leaves for Amsterdam. So we've found a cafe at the hautbahnhof that has free wifi and so i'm using the oh so advanced browser on my phone.

Prague was beautiful, Berlin was nice, though dodgy looking (but not dodgy). Went to the bone chapel outside of Prague which was fucking amazing. Should i work out a way to ftp some photos i can show you all.

i'll update this in more detail when we get to Amsterdam.

Points so far...

Friday:
-Went through four countries before lunchtime.
-Ended up in Heerlen in southern Netherlands to meet the family.
-Arrived at hotel, discovered there was no toilet door.
-Constructed toilet door out of towels. Didnt work exceptionally well but better than nothing at all.
-Met up with father.
-Tried to meet cousin Henk but couldnt as he's become a recluse.
-Met cousin Hans. Went to his house and smoked alot of cigarettes.

Saturday:
-Purchased ultra-cheap breakfast from market stall. May have ingested wasp eggs. (They dont have flies in Europe, they have wasps).
-Walked around Heerlen alot.
-Went to dinner with various cousins. They talk in Dutch alot.

Sunday:
-Walked some more.
-Met Aunt Lise. She is tiny and at least a million years old. The only English she knows is, "Would you like something to drink?" She gave us some lollies for the trip to Munich.

Monday:
-Caught the train to Munich. Basically went from one side of Germany to the other.
-Hotel is nice but FUCKING NOISY. Also keyboards make no sense.

Tuesday:
-Went to a museum of size to rival The Louvre. Took lots of photos.
-Went to see Amanda Palmer because The Hold Steady fucking cancelled.
-Amanda Palmer and assorted guests were fucking amazing.

Wednesday:
-Walked back to hotel from Amanda Palmer.
-Wrote this.

Thursday:
-Hasnt happened yet.

Really boring. And I couldnt sleep for most of it. Still, inflight entertainment and food was actually quite good! Also jet lag is a big lie. And Singapore is the most humid thing Ive ever seen. Yes, seen, it was that humid I could see it.

Paris is fucking amazing. We've got an awesome view on Monmartre from our hotel room. Every building is fitted with 182 dodgy chimneys with several even dodgier antennae bolted to each. There's too many cars but none of them are over a two metres long and no one knows how to park. Or they know how to park too well.

Louvre was great. Im not a big art fan, but geeze. ART!

Last night we met up with my father, who's staying up the road, and several of his hostel friends. Went to dinner, which wasnt cheap, but wasnt expensive either. So far we've made it on about E50 a day. And not felt like we were missing out on anything. Anyway, dinner was good, and the company was good. Jess and I went back to their hostel where I consumed half a bottle of wine (more on that later).

And everyone who complains about dog shit, overpriced food, and the smell of piss on the metro is wrong. Its all quite pleasant. Except the keyboards are all stuffed.

And our hotel has a broken piano in it! What more could you need? Perhaps half a litre of Hoegaarden from a supermarket for under $3 Australian? Well you can get that too.

Also wine is cheap. And good wine. The best way to get it is to go to the supermarket, wait for an alcoholic to come in and buy something, and then get the same. E4,00 for a bottle last night, bought using that principle, and man was it good. And the Amstel tastes beautiful. Alcohol in France, best thing ever. EVER!

Off to Heerlen tomorrow morning at 6:30.
Which means I have to get up at five tomorrow. IN THE MORNING.
Though by your time that's 1pm.

See you all in five weeks.

I may just update this cursed thing while Im away.
With photos!

Sometimes everything fits together so perfectly.
First it was realising that I could see one of my favourite bands in Paris.
Then it was finding out that I could also see my absolute most favourite band in Munich.

Fuck yes fuck fuck yes.

In celebration of that fact that Ive pissed away another year (and am turning the ripe old age of 22), meet me at Hula Bula on Friday (the 23rd) at 8:30pm for drinks.

Then go and do your own thing or band together to drag me home after I get kicked out for throwing up too much. The choice is yours!

See you all, or maybe some of you, or probably none of you, there!

And also go to the Hydey on Thursday night to see me pick a fight with a piano keyboard.