When we say new years eve, do we mean the year that just ended or the year that's just about to start? I think technically it means the one that just ended. I'd just like to be clear.
The most recent new year's eve, and the last one according to the Mayan Calendar, was an amazing one for this Mayan. (For some reason the Mayan calendar has some sort of relevance now, although not important enough to know any other important dates on it...here's a website if you ever want to know what day today is on the Mayan Calendar http://mayancalendar4u.com/page/10215 and happy "white HAND manik' ~ gather will branches" day!)
I had drinks with a buddy as we strolled to the city and watched the early fireworks at The Rocks. Then I headed to a friend's place for a NYE party at Circular Quay right between the bridge and opera house. Most of my favorite people from school were there. At midnight we moseyed down to the viewing area and watched an amazing fireworks show. If you like fireworks, this a 'bucket list kind of show'. Who doesn't like fireworks??
Back at the party we drank our host dry and he kicked us out. I don't blame him. We caught a bus to the beach and waited till the world turned enough to reveal the sun. A swim, a nap, a quick packing job and 8 hours later was on a first class flight to BKK.
Pretty good start huh?
Showing posts with label Sydney. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sydney. Show all posts
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Sunday, October 23, 2011
What a shitty week
My grandma's in the hospital and they figure it'll be any day now. She's 96 and has had a pretty amazing life. Just last month she was out to conferences and out doing social things. Still, am afraid to open my email every day expecting the news. So it was an extra shot in the junk today when I checked my mail to find out our beagle, Molly, had to be put down. She was a great little dog, happy, curious, playful and loving. She was 16, which is about 96 in dog years. Go figure.
Anyway I'm a little broken hearted to say the least.
The other day I was sitting at sidewalk cafe table drinking a cappuccino and working on a short student film I'm editing. This drunk homeless looking aboriginal man had been stalking the sidewalk for a while, slugging a brown paper wrapped bottle of something and randomly asking for change. God knows we owe it to him. I don't know how good you are at your job, but this guy is an absolute prodigy at being a drunk homeless guy. If anyone deserves additional remuneration for their efforts and expertise at their chosen vocation, it was this guy.
On his third fly by of this particular row of cafes he stops at my table, looks at me and says, "that's dirty!" pointing at my Mac. I look up at him, his lips flakey and dry, teeth rotting and yellow from what I would assume is the result of years of crack or meth abuse. Noting how much he spit when he spoke, I covered my coffee with my hand.
"That's fucking dirty!" he reiterated, pointing again. "You should get a fucking life, your pathetic!" he slurred, struggling to to maintain his questionable balance.
"I've got a life pal, why don't you walk on now" I muttered, looking around the sidewalk for help from the other caffeine junkies on my block, most of whom are now engrossed in their newspapers, or some insignificant irregularity in their table cloth that has become monumentally important for the time being. Thanks
My domestically challenged friend launched into another tirade about how disgusting and pathetic I am when I finally looked at him and said "Im just trying to do some work here pal, go away please"
Now here's something interesting about people of an ethnic descent with a history of being displaced by invaders resulting in cycles of poverty lasting decades if not centuries. They don't like being told to go away. It's like the statement some how justifies or encourages the attempted genocide, or extermination of their culture. Now I've pissed him off
"oh, you'd fucking like that wouldn't you?" he spat with venom.
"yes, I would I replied, that's why I said it" a replied. Well, that confused him. It's like I used Eddie Murphy's Jedi mind trick on a dried out old crack head Mr. T. With that, he wandered away cursing the white man.
By this point I'm flying. Adrenalin had me all pumped up and spoiling for a fight. I'm in no mood to edit the kids movie I've been trying to cut. So I just sat there, drinking coffee. After a few minutes it dawned on me. The guy, the homeless guy that called me a pathetic loser, he wasn't relly being a dick. I thought he was paying me out for working on my computer at a coffee shop like some prissy wanna be script writer dying to be seen (guilty). But, now that I think about it, I think he was making a joke, like I was looking at porn on my computer and was trying to embarrass me, the way I would do to a buddy. Like that email that went around a few years ago that when you opened, it showed porn and a siren went off drawing the attention of all your coworkers, who would then bray like jackasses at your stupidity.
So, assuming I'm right, all that adrenaline and anger was over a joke that I misunderstood. Well, jokes on me then. Sorry homeless guy.
Homeless craziness -1
Wannabe script writer -0
Anyway I'm a little broken hearted to say the least.
The other day I was sitting at sidewalk cafe table drinking a cappuccino and working on a short student film I'm editing. This drunk homeless looking aboriginal man had been stalking the sidewalk for a while, slugging a brown paper wrapped bottle of something and randomly asking for change. God knows we owe it to him. I don't know how good you are at your job, but this guy is an absolute prodigy at being a drunk homeless guy. If anyone deserves additional remuneration for their efforts and expertise at their chosen vocation, it was this guy.
On his third fly by of this particular row of cafes he stops at my table, looks at me and says, "that's dirty!" pointing at my Mac. I look up at him, his lips flakey and dry, teeth rotting and yellow from what I would assume is the result of years of crack or meth abuse. Noting how much he spit when he spoke, I covered my coffee with my hand.
"That's fucking dirty!" he reiterated, pointing again. "You should get a fucking life, your pathetic!" he slurred, struggling to to maintain his questionable balance.
"I've got a life pal, why don't you walk on now" I muttered, looking around the sidewalk for help from the other caffeine junkies on my block, most of whom are now engrossed in their newspapers, or some insignificant irregularity in their table cloth that has become monumentally important for the time being. Thanks
My domestically challenged friend launched into another tirade about how disgusting and pathetic I am when I finally looked at him and said "Im just trying to do some work here pal, go away please"
Now here's something interesting about people of an ethnic descent with a history of being displaced by invaders resulting in cycles of poverty lasting decades if not centuries. They don't like being told to go away. It's like the statement some how justifies or encourages the attempted genocide, or extermination of their culture. Now I've pissed him off
"oh, you'd fucking like that wouldn't you?" he spat with venom.
"yes, I would I replied, that's why I said it" a replied. Well, that confused him. It's like I used Eddie Murphy's Jedi mind trick on a dried out old crack head Mr. T. With that, he wandered away cursing the white man.
By this point I'm flying. Adrenalin had me all pumped up and spoiling for a fight. I'm in no mood to edit the kids movie I've been trying to cut. So I just sat there, drinking coffee. After a few minutes it dawned on me. The guy, the homeless guy that called me a pathetic loser, he wasn't relly being a dick. I thought he was paying me out for working on my computer at a coffee shop like some prissy wanna be script writer dying to be seen (guilty). But, now that I think about it, I think he was making a joke, like I was looking at porn on my computer and was trying to embarrass me, the way I would do to a buddy. Like that email that went around a few years ago that when you opened, it showed porn and a siren went off drawing the attention of all your coworkers, who would then bray like jackasses at your stupidity.
So, assuming I'm right, all that adrenaline and anger was over a joke that I misunderstood. Well, jokes on me then. Sorry homeless guy.
Homeless craziness -1
Wannabe script writer -0
Monday, September 12, 2011
I yelled at a homeless person
I'm usually pretty laid back, but every once in a while someone really pisses me off. Tonight, on the way home from the grocery store, this really drunk dude comes up to me, quite quickly, and starts asking for change, I said no sorry, and he stepped in front of me and told me to give him a chip (there was a bag of chips at the top of my grocery bag) I said no again. He stepped in my way again. So, I don't know why, but I yelled at him and told him to get the fuck out of my way.
Anyway, that lead to him following me down the street asking me where exactly my way is that he should get the fuck out of, screaming that he was going to kick my ass, telling me to suck my own dick and, at least once throwing a very dramatic karate kick to illustrate how exactly proficient his ass kicking skills are.
He almost fell over. The drunken homeless aren't that flexible.
Anyway, that lead to him following me down the street asking me where exactly my way is that he should get the fuck out of, screaming that he was going to kick my ass, telling me to suck my own dick and, at least once throwing a very dramatic karate kick to illustrate how exactly proficient his ass kicking skills are.
He almost fell over. The drunken homeless aren't that flexible.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Ice in Oz
So here's something kind of funny. Aussies bring in ice an attraction to outdoor festivals. Bear in mind that its winter but it's still around 10-15 degrees during the day here.
I was jogging the other day and I passed this park and they had this set up. They rent them these bright orange skates that fit over your shoes and people skate around for a half hour or so. They had one set up at the beach the other day too. People were surfing while others were ice skating.
Pretty funny if you ask me. I don't care if you didn't ask me.
I was jogging the other day and I passed this park and they had this set up. They rent them these bright orange skates that fit over your shoes and people skate around for a half hour or so. They had one set up at the beach the other day too. People were surfing while others were ice skating.
Pretty funny if you ask me. I don't care if you didn't ask me.
 |
| Dawn at the rink |
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
The Diary of A Film School Student
When you read about writing, the one common thread you'll see is how much work it is. Its a labour of love. You have to write. Then rewrite, and review and rewrite. The problem with screenplays is once you understand the format, how little you can actually put into your story.
A screenplay is a blue print. Its an outline. What you write is what can be seen on the screen. You can't write what someone is thinking, unless you plan on showing it somehow, a voice over, a flash back. Something.
I recently started writing a story based on a photo from a newspaper I'd picked out. It was part of a writing exercize for a class. So I wrote and wrote and got a story I was happy with and presented it to the teacher. He liked it. Said so. Had me read it out in class. Then he decided that what I wrote wasn't fiscally feasible for a student film (one of the guidelines of the project) so I rewrote the setting to fit an aussie landscape. Presented that. Well recieved.
So I show up to class on Tuesday and we had classmates read our scripts outloud, different people playing different parts, the author reading the big print. (the actions, the scene info etc) Suddenly, my script sucks. They can't "relate to the characters". There's nothing that "grabs" them. FFS!!
So now I'm rewriting it again so that it grabs people. Hey...have you ever thought of going to film school? really? Be prepared for the occasional kick in the nuts.
It's worth it .
A screenplay is a blue print. Its an outline. What you write is what can be seen on the screen. You can't write what someone is thinking, unless you plan on showing it somehow, a voice over, a flash back. Something.
I recently started writing a story based on a photo from a newspaper I'd picked out. It was part of a writing exercize for a class. So I wrote and wrote and got a story I was happy with and presented it to the teacher. He liked it. Said so. Had me read it out in class. Then he decided that what I wrote wasn't fiscally feasible for a student film (one of the guidelines of the project) so I rewrote the setting to fit an aussie landscape. Presented that. Well recieved.
So I show up to class on Tuesday and we had classmates read our scripts outloud, different people playing different parts, the author reading the big print. (the actions, the scene info etc) Suddenly, my script sucks. They can't "relate to the characters". There's nothing that "grabs" them. FFS!!
So now I'm rewriting it again so that it grabs people. Hey...have you ever thought of going to film school? really? Be prepared for the occasional kick in the nuts.
It's worth it .
What I learned from Taxi Driver
Film festival is this week. A chance to show all our hard work to the waiting world! As you can imagine, it's a stressful week. There is a lot of pressure on first time directors, producers editors and sound people to put their best foot forward and represent not just our own work but the work of the camera crew, production designers etc etc.
It's been a mad dash to the finish for us. Getting final cuts, last minute changes, music selection, sound mix, colour grading, exporting to a file the festival needs, transferring data to the festival organizers, writing up synopses-es and statements from directors. It's all stressful and time consuming.
Tonight I sat around and listened to some students discuss the merits of two digital camera... Red and the new Arriflex, duscussing lattitude and other equally exciting technical aspects of the new digital realm debating which on they'd rather the scho should by for them to use next term. For three guys who have never shot a real film in their lives, nor put their hands on either camera, they spoke with the confidence and expertise of grizzled hollywood veterans.
So a couple of us went out to see Taxi Driver at 7 over at the Danby Theater in Newtown. It's this little boutique style theater in a trendy neighborhood frequented by students and lesbians. Mmm, lesbians... I digress, um, right, Taxi Driver. Brillant film. Put boylth scorsece and dinero on the map. The film was shot in 76. At the time Eastman Kodak ws supplying fairly shitty 35 mm film. Taxi driver is grainy as hell, and typical of many 70s flicks, it the colour isn't perfect. In darker scenes the black is too black. The contrast is too high in spots. In others they desaturated the film to take the red out if the blood so they could get an r18 rating.
Given all that, it's still a great movie. Sit and talk about lattitude and resolution all you want, fact is, you can make a great movie with grainy film. No one in the audience gives a shit if you've memorized a bunch of spec sheets.
Halfway through the movie it stopped, froze, then restarted... Out of sync. The projectionist stopped it, took us back to the place it freaked out at and hit play. Life goes on. It will be the same at our student festival. Glitches will happen. Things will have been missed. Life will go on.
I'm glad I went to see Taxi Driver tonight. Ive learned so much!
It's been a mad dash to the finish for us. Getting final cuts, last minute changes, music selection, sound mix, colour grading, exporting to a file the festival needs, transferring data to the festival organizers, writing up synopses-es and statements from directors. It's all stressful and time consuming.
Tonight I sat around and listened to some students discuss the merits of two digital camera... Red and the new Arriflex, duscussing lattitude and other equally exciting technical aspects of the new digital realm debating which on they'd rather the scho should by for them to use next term. For three guys who have never shot a real film in their lives, nor put their hands on either camera, they spoke with the confidence and expertise of grizzled hollywood veterans.
So a couple of us went out to see Taxi Driver at 7 over at the Danby Theater in Newtown. It's this little boutique style theater in a trendy neighborhood frequented by students and lesbians. Mmm, lesbians... I digress, um, right, Taxi Driver. Brillant film. Put boylth scorsece and dinero on the map. The film was shot in 76. At the time Eastman Kodak ws supplying fairly shitty 35 mm film. Taxi driver is grainy as hell, and typical of many 70s flicks, it the colour isn't perfect. In darker scenes the black is too black. The contrast is too high in spots. In others they desaturated the film to take the red out if the blood so they could get an r18 rating.
Given all that, it's still a great movie. Sit and talk about lattitude and resolution all you want, fact is, you can make a great movie with grainy film. No one in the audience gives a shit if you've memorized a bunch of spec sheets.
Halfway through the movie it stopped, froze, then restarted... Out of sync. The projectionist stopped it, took us back to the place it freaked out at and hit play. Life goes on. It will be the same at our student festival. Glitches will happen. Things will have been missed. Life will go on.
I'm glad I went to see Taxi Driver tonight. Ive learned so much!
So I'm An Actor Now
I'm holding an audition for a promo I'm doing the other day and some buddies are holding an audition for their Thesis film. Oh, actors suck by the way. They don't show up to their auditions for non paying gigs. Fine. Give me a call then, just let me know. But no, these precious thespians can't be bothered. Bite me actors.
Anyway, I'm waiting for some guy who isn't going to show up. I go chat with the boys and their actor isn't showing up. I ask about the project and they're tell me about it, they're casting a bad guy. Then one guy looks at me and goes "You'd be a good bad guy!!" They hand me the script and tell me to get back to them. Just like that.
Script is good, I sign on as "DARK FIGURE". You always capitalize the important things in a script. Thats me in this instance. First rehersal I'm a half hour late (Told you actors suck didn't I?) They're cool with it though. Really first rate guys. I go through the lines with the other actor, who's a good guy too, the director's happy, producer's happy, it's on.
5:30 cast call on Thursday. Running on 3 hours and fighting a cold. No problem. I'm not supposed to look good. I'm the bad guy. We hit a servo (Australian for service station) and get brekky (Australian for breakfast) Meat pies. They love meat pies.
We then drive out to the country to this national park. Its gorgeous out there. We get onto this old deserted road. The whole scene is there, on this deserted road. We started shooting early, sun barely cracking the treeline. These guys are great to work with. Couple of takes and we're out of every scene!
Late in the day, I'm giving a long speech to my victim. The camera is on him for the take. But he's not feeling it. So he asks me to slap him. Slap him. Cool. So, I slap him. Not too hard, apparently I don't know my own strength...Ive knocked a few people over in the halls here by accident (they guys here are kind of feeble for criminal stock) But the guy is black. So now i'm worried I've committed a hate crime. But then I'm like, its Australia, I think I get a parade now! Kidding. Sydney is a wonderfully diverse melting pot.
The next day I'm hanging out and it turns out the sound machine we were using didn't work. I was doing sound on a guy's movie and the part of the psychologist was played buy a teacher from the school, just a voice over. The VO got ruined. So the teachers no longer available, and the guy is scurrying around getting people to say the lines. Actually he was just standing asking people who went by. I happened to come out of the edit suite and he said, "How did she say the line?" I said it and his buddy was like. Get Luke to do it. Now I'm a voice actor.
Isn't life funny!
(ok i'm not like a real actor, but I've acted in 2 student films...thats cool right??)
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Sauce
I headed out to get a bite to eat the other night during a marathon editing/searching for music for the movie we're working on. A friend suggested this chicken place around the corner. Ok fine, yeah chicken, deep fried chicken, sounds great. SO I go in and order a 2 peice meal with chips (what they call fries down here). Anyway, its a pretty good deal. Until. I go to walk out. I turn and look at the gentleman behind the counter. "Oh, hey, can I get some ketchup with that?"
Dude looks at me, and, I'm not kidding, looks at me and says "Sauce is 30 cents."
Are you freaking kidding me?! Thirty cents for some ketchup. After I spent 7 bucks for 2 little tiny peices of fried chicken and some potatoes, that have clearly been french fried, masquerading as chips?
I looked at this fine entrepreneur and said "Really?"
He just looked back at me and blinked. I turned and walked out, never to darken their doorstep again.
KFC pulled the same stunt about 2 months ago. I haven't been back there either.
A couple of days ago I stopped at the hotbread place up the road from school. I asked for a schnitzel. I get a schnitzel there once a week or so. She starts to make it and I say, "yeah, can you put BBQ sauce on that?" She looks at me, and with no amount of shame whatsoever says "Sauce is fifty cents."
I just looked at her. "You're kidding"
She just looked at me. "Yeah ok, fine, here's another 50 cents." Normally I'd revolt boycott the sauce at this point on principle, but really, a schnitzel without sauce is just too dray and bland to be choked down.
But, there are several hotbread places in the area, I am now boycotting "Terry's Hotbread." Bite me Terry!
Anyway, my point on this whole sauce thing is that, I think if someone is spending good money at your shitty little hole in the wall eating establishment, you should give them some free ketchup for their fries. I mean really? Whats next? 10 cents for each side of the bun? 15 cents for napkins? Where does it end?
Dude looks at me, and, I'm not kidding, looks at me and says "Sauce is 30 cents."
Are you freaking kidding me?! Thirty cents for some ketchup. After I spent 7 bucks for 2 little tiny peices of fried chicken and some potatoes, that have clearly been french fried, masquerading as chips?
I looked at this fine entrepreneur and said "Really?"
He just looked back at me and blinked. I turned and walked out, never to darken their doorstep again.
KFC pulled the same stunt about 2 months ago. I haven't been back there either.
A couple of days ago I stopped at the hotbread place up the road from school. I asked for a schnitzel. I get a schnitzel there once a week or so. She starts to make it and I say, "yeah, can you put BBQ sauce on that?" She looks at me, and with no amount of shame whatsoever says "Sauce is fifty cents."
I just looked at her. "You're kidding"
She just looked at me. "Yeah ok, fine, here's another 50 cents." Normally I'd revolt boycott the sauce at this point on principle, but really, a schnitzel without sauce is just too dray and bland to be choked down.
But, there are several hotbread places in the area, I am now boycotting "Terry's Hotbread." Bite me Terry!
Anyway, my point on this whole sauce thing is that, I think if someone is spending good money at your shitty little hole in the wall eating establishment, you should give them some free ketchup for their fries. I mean really? Whats next? 10 cents for each side of the bun? 15 cents for napkins? Where does it end?
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Drinking with the swedes again
I've made friends with these three swedish girls from school. Not only are they really good around a camera, but they're alot of fun to hang out with.
The other night at about 11 I got call from one of the swedes. I was going to turn in early but, what the hell, they were at a bar just up the street. I wandered up the road. When I got there I saw the girls and a friend of theirs, a girl from New Hampshire. Nice girl. Had no idea where New Brunswick was. We'll not hold that against her though.
One of my friends has a broken foot from a drinking accident. These things happen. Being the nice guy that I am I offered to ferry drinks from the bar for her. On one trip a very attractive woman ran her hand down my back and then turned around like she didn't do it. So of course I called her on it and ended up chatting with her. Unfortunately she was boring as hell. Oh and she wasn't interested in me, she was interested in the three swedish chicks; who were all making out at the time.
So, me, the three Swedish chicks, the chick from New Hampshire and the Aussie lesbian all started drinking. I was going slow because I had things to do the next day. One of the swedes left and wasn't allowed back in. The drunk lesbian started telling me how much she hated me. Then she started really hitting on one of the Swedes, which sorta freaked them out. The girl from New Hampshire told me she wanted to make out with me. One of the swedes went to find the swede that got kicked out. Appearantly the burger place accepts people too drunk for bars, cause that's where she ended up.
The bouncer came over and told me the lesbian had to leave. I told him I didn't know the lass. He told me that she's been sitting at my table. (Typical bouncer logic) I told him she's been sitting at lots of tables, but I didn't show up with her, I ain't leaving with her, if she's gotta go, that's his problem. Well, he didn't like that much, but I was still standing so there wasn't too much he could do. Plus he was confused now.
End of the night, 2 out of 3 swedes are booted out, our new lesbian friend is on a couch crying on some other girl, the girl from New Hampshire gave me her number and I walked home. Ok, not a barn burner of an evening but, hell, what'd you do this weekend?
The other night at about 11 I got call from one of the swedes. I was going to turn in early but, what the hell, they were at a bar just up the street. I wandered up the road. When I got there I saw the girls and a friend of theirs, a girl from New Hampshire. Nice girl. Had no idea where New Brunswick was. We'll not hold that against her though.
One of my friends has a broken foot from a drinking accident. These things happen. Being the nice guy that I am I offered to ferry drinks from the bar for her. On one trip a very attractive woman ran her hand down my back and then turned around like she didn't do it. So of course I called her on it and ended up chatting with her. Unfortunately she was boring as hell. Oh and she wasn't interested in me, she was interested in the three swedish chicks; who were all making out at the time.
So, me, the three Swedish chicks, the chick from New Hampshire and the Aussie lesbian all started drinking. I was going slow because I had things to do the next day. One of the swedes left and wasn't allowed back in. The drunk lesbian started telling me how much she hated me. Then she started really hitting on one of the Swedes, which sorta freaked them out. The girl from New Hampshire told me she wanted to make out with me. One of the swedes went to find the swede that got kicked out. Appearantly the burger place accepts people too drunk for bars, cause that's where she ended up.
The bouncer came over and told me the lesbian had to leave. I told him I didn't know the lass. He told me that she's been sitting at my table. (Typical bouncer logic) I told him she's been sitting at lots of tables, but I didn't show up with her, I ain't leaving with her, if she's gotta go, that's his problem. Well, he didn't like that much, but I was still standing so there wasn't too much he could do. Plus he was confused now.
End of the night, 2 out of 3 swedes are booted out, our new lesbian friend is on a couch crying on some other girl, the girl from New Hampshire gave me her number and I walked home. Ok, not a barn burner of an evening but, hell, what'd you do this weekend?
Footie
I miss hockey. I really do. Not so much that I want to see the Bruins and the Canucks play for the cup. God. Who do you hate more? The Cancucks obviously, but then again do you want to see the cup go to the states AGAIN? Hmmm.
So the other day I was speaking to one of the directors at school and we got to talking about AFL. Aussie rules football. I had mentioned that i wanted to go catch a game. Well, it turns out he's a huge fan of the local team, the Sydney Swans. Don't let the name fool you, these guys are incredibly tough. The next morning I got a call quite early, about 10am (it was Saturday, gimme a break), and the directors wife decided she didn't want to go to the game that day so he asked if I wanted to go. Apparently he's got season tickets, which they call a membership here, and never misses a game.
The game played was between the Sydney swans and the Tigers. I can't recall where the tigers are from. It was pouring rain. Leslie (the guy who took me to the game) introduced me to all the other members in our section and was kind enough to explain the rules to me as we went. There was a lady in front of us who was at least 70 who was screaming with pure venom at the umpires. A tigers fan in front of us was losing his mind when the calls didn't go his way. Much like home.
The sport is pretty wild. 18 players on each side. 4 umpires (refs) 2 endzone officials and a couple of sideline officials. Plus there are people running out constantly to bring messages to the players, and people with water bottles too. So it looks like organized chaos out there.
Here are some differences between Canadian sporting events and this one. Not one single person got into a fight, or at least tried to fight someone wearing the wrong jersey. The aussies have the common sense to cover parts of their stadium, so when its pouring rain, let alone snowing, the fans don't catch pnemonia. Season ticket holders, or members, get a scan card with their seat number on it instead of a book of tickets. At the concession stands they don't sell burgers or nachos, but they do sell fish n chips and meat pies. Now, given how hot and warming meat pies are, I think this should be a new Canadian CFL tradition. Just a thought.
Here are some similarities. The concession stand in Australia do like to bend their fans over and give em a nice high hard one for the privilege of eating shitty concession stand food, just like Canada. The ride home took twice as long as it should have. At half time they had some local kids come out and play a smaller version of the game. Thats great! Thanks for shelling out for some entertainment team owner. But keep exploiting kids, that's good.
Anyway, I had a great time. AFL is a great game and its a great plug for the five hole in my heart!
Next game....Rugby union!
So the other day I was speaking to one of the directors at school and we got to talking about AFL. Aussie rules football. I had mentioned that i wanted to go catch a game. Well, it turns out he's a huge fan of the local team, the Sydney Swans. Don't let the name fool you, these guys are incredibly tough. The next morning I got a call quite early, about 10am (it was Saturday, gimme a break), and the directors wife decided she didn't want to go to the game that day so he asked if I wanted to go. Apparently he's got season tickets, which they call a membership here, and never misses a game.
The game played was between the Sydney swans and the Tigers. I can't recall where the tigers are from. It was pouring rain. Leslie (the guy who took me to the game) introduced me to all the other members in our section and was kind enough to explain the rules to me as we went. There was a lady in front of us who was at least 70 who was screaming with pure venom at the umpires. A tigers fan in front of us was losing his mind when the calls didn't go his way. Much like home.
The sport is pretty wild. 18 players on each side. 4 umpires (refs) 2 endzone officials and a couple of sideline officials. Plus there are people running out constantly to bring messages to the players, and people with water bottles too. So it looks like organized chaos out there.
Here are some differences between Canadian sporting events and this one. Not one single person got into a fight, or at least tried to fight someone wearing the wrong jersey. The aussies have the common sense to cover parts of their stadium, so when its pouring rain, let alone snowing, the fans don't catch pnemonia. Season ticket holders, or members, get a scan card with their seat number on it instead of a book of tickets. At the concession stands they don't sell burgers or nachos, but they do sell fish n chips and meat pies. Now, given how hot and warming meat pies are, I think this should be a new Canadian CFL tradition. Just a thought.
Here are some similarities. The concession stand in Australia do like to bend their fans over and give em a nice high hard one for the privilege of eating shitty concession stand food, just like Canada. The ride home took twice as long as it should have. At half time they had some local kids come out and play a smaller version of the game. Thats great! Thanks for shelling out for some entertainment team owner. But keep exploiting kids, that's good.
Anyway, I had a great time. AFL is a great game and its a great plug for the five hole in my heart!
Next game....Rugby union!
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Vegetarian Non alcoholic Indian Movies
Went out for a birthday party this week. Went to a place called Godiva. Indian food! Sweet!
So we get there.Smells good. Oh wait...somethings amiss! VEGETARIAN INDIAN FOOD! Dammit!! Sigh. Ok, no problem. I'll try it. Hey, how about a beer while we're waiting? Hmmm...something else seems amis! NON ALCOHOLIC BEER!? Dammit! I had a full on Homer Simpson moment.
The meal was actually good. Love a buffet. Eat till you can barely move. Come to find out, there's a movie theatre downstairs. AND they don't have seats, they have these big cushions you lean back on. AND its only $10. Movies here are insanely expensive. So this is great news!
So we get there.Smells good. Oh wait...somethings amiss! VEGETARIAN INDIAN FOOD! Dammit!! Sigh. Ok, no problem. I'll try it. Hey, how about a beer while we're waiting? Hmmm...something else seems amis! NON ALCOHOLIC BEER!? Dammit! I had a full on Homer Simpson moment.
The meal was actually good. Love a buffet. Eat till you can barely move. Come to find out, there's a movie theatre downstairs. AND they don't have seats, they have these big cushions you lean back on. AND its only $10. Movies here are insanely expensive. So this is great news!
Tenants
Sydney is incredibly expensive. My neighbor lives in a small one room place and pays 300/week for it. Oh yeah, under the equator they charge by the week and water swirls the other way in the toilet. To offset this dramatic upshift in the cost of living I took a job as an apartment manager. That means I have to put out the garbage, write a weekly report (its usually late) and check people out when they move out. For these tasks I get my rent reduced to 80/week for an incredibly small apartment. About twice the size of a prison cell. With grill and my own shower.
When a friend of mine moved in I hadn't checked the room out yet. I mis understood the process. I thought the last group was moving out at 2 on tuesday, not that she was moving in at 2 on tuesday. So I show up to clean and the place is a disaster. Oh, and she's moved in. And cleaning. And angry.
Anyway, I offered to clean but she was already into it so yeah...that was that. She complained to the company, I explained what happened, I apologized again. All was right with the world. Except...the previous tennant left bed bugs. That the new tennant inherited. And it was my fault that it wasn't caught before she moved it. She had to take a day off work because the itching was so bad. Apparently they like the warmer parts of the body, underarms, groins.... Its amazing weve become friends. She made me spanikopita one day.
This other guy moved in recently. I had pulled an all nighter that day and didn't get home from school till about 6pm the next. It was friday, I was beat and crashed, out like a light by 730. At 830 he called to say hi. Then he asked what time a good time to call would be. I told him if he needed something he could call any old time. He said not to worry, he'd never call reallly late like after 10 or something. I told him that if was important enough to call me a at , it would be ok to call me after 10. I thought that he might get the hint.
He just called me to let me know his vaccuum isn't working. FFS. It says right on the rental agreement that for shit like that you need to log a report with the rental agency. But, its easier to call the guy downstairs. God knows I've got a stock pile of vacuums stored in my incredibly tiny $80/week apartment.
Another guy came by tonight. "hey, there's water leaking from our shower into the kitchen"
Me: "did you log a report on the website?"
Guy: "No"
Me: "you should do that"
Guy: "Oh"
Me: "'member the last time this happened?"
Guy: "yeah"
Me: "member that I said you should log it on the website?"
Guy: "yeah"
Me: "So its the same thing right?"
Guy:" yeah"
Me: "I'm gonna get back to making my omlet then"
Oh, and no one here speaks english as their first language. Bed bug girl - French. Water in the kithcen guy - Danish. Guy who keeps parking his truck in the back where he's not supposed to - Irish.
Anyway, off for a run with the bedbug girl.
When a friend of mine moved in I hadn't checked the room out yet. I mis understood the process. I thought the last group was moving out at 2 on tuesday, not that she was moving in at 2 on tuesday. So I show up to clean and the place is a disaster. Oh, and she's moved in. And cleaning. And angry.
Anyway, I offered to clean but she was already into it so yeah...that was that. She complained to the company, I explained what happened, I apologized again. All was right with the world. Except...the previous tennant left bed bugs. That the new tennant inherited. And it was my fault that it wasn't caught before she moved it. She had to take a day off work because the itching was so bad. Apparently they like the warmer parts of the body, underarms, groins.... Its amazing weve become friends. She made me spanikopita one day.
This other guy moved in recently. I had pulled an all nighter that day and didn't get home from school till about 6pm the next. It was friday, I was beat and crashed, out like a light by 730. At 830 he called to say hi. Then he asked what time a good time to call would be. I told him if he needed something he could call any old time. He said not to worry, he'd never call reallly late like after 10 or something. I told him that if was important enough to call me a at , it would be ok to call me after 10. I thought that he might get the hint.
He just called me to let me know his vaccuum isn't working. FFS. It says right on the rental agreement that for shit like that you need to log a report with the rental agency. But, its easier to call the guy downstairs. God knows I've got a stock pile of vacuums stored in my incredibly tiny $80/week apartment.
Another guy came by tonight. "hey, there's water leaking from our shower into the kitchen"
Me: "did you log a report on the website?"
Guy: "No"
Me: "you should do that"
Guy: "Oh"
Me: "'member the last time this happened?"
Guy: "yeah"
Me: "member that I said you should log it on the website?"
Guy: "yeah"
Me: "So its the same thing right?"
Guy:" yeah"
Me: "I'm gonna get back to making my omlet then"
Oh, and no one here speaks english as their first language. Bed bug girl - French. Water in the kithcen guy - Danish. Guy who keeps parking his truck in the back where he's not supposed to - Irish.
Anyway, off for a run with the bedbug girl.
Bollywood BABY!!
So my friend Sam calls me the other day. I'd just stepped into the shower, but answered the phone anyway. Why do I do that? So there I am dripping on the carpet telling him that I just got back from shooting a doco 5 mins before. He asked how tired I am, I say am fine, whats up? You wanna be the focus puller on a Bollywood movie in Strathfield?
Well where the fuck is Strathfield I ask, not that it matters, I'm going to say yes.
I dunno, says Sam, you can take a train though, its in the city.
Yeah ok, what are the details?
You need a focus pulling kit.
Shit, I don't have one, nevermind, I'll call around or pick up the gear I need....Uh, whats the directors name?
Guy's name is Shane, give him a shout. I'll be joining tomorrow I just happen to be out of town.
Shibby.
So I call the guy, get the details and grab my shower. FINALLY a hot shower. I call around and I can't get the stuff I need so I hit a hardware store for a tape and get some markers and gaffer tape from a new agency (Magazine shop back home) and hit the train.
I show up about 2 hours after I got the call. Oh hi Luke. Hi Shane. We're just setting up. Sweet.
Theres a massive gaffer truck outside with a HUGE generator. They type you tow. The gaffer is the dude that does all the lighting. This guy's got tons of it. The house is brand new and huge. And spotless. Almost no furniture. Inside I meet who I think is the producer, Stanley. Really nice guy. I speak with the gaffers, they're cool. Some dude named Nate was there, he runs his own production company, just starting out, hoping to get some work with Stanley in the future.
Suddenly people show up everywhere. All these old indian folks. Apparently we're shooting a party scene. So we take some measurements and start to film. The thing is, Shane isn't the director, Stanley is, but he's not really directing, he's kind of producing. And theres no AD. So no one is running the show. So Shane is sort of running the show. We film a few scenes of this STUNNING girl coming down stairs to announce the start of the party. Then we film some mingling, a close up of the girl again, then a guy coming down the stairs.
Suddenly, everyone is gone. Like that. (Picture me snapping my fingers) Like that. (Good) Now, for some reason, the people who own the house have a stage build in front of a window in the front room. What we find out is that there will be three dancing girls on this stage doing a routine. Traditional indian dancing, but kind of modernized and super sexy. The girls show up and they are gorgeous. Drop dead gorgeous. The only problem is, no one rehersed their routine with the stage.
We set up to shoot while the choreographer goes through the motions. 3 hours later, listening to the same shitty indian pop song watching these girls do the same three things over and over and all of a sudden they just decide to leave. Bang. Gone. We're standing their with this set up ready to go.
I'll shorten the next days story. about 2 hours set dressing, they decide to go back to the way we had it the night before. 2 or 3 hours standing around while they reherse. We finally get the shots. Then they reherse the stair part. Candles everywhere, one girl dragging this veil down the stairs, she alost lights herself up as the veil goes through a candle. About 9 my buddies leave. At 11 I left to make sure I can catch the last traing.
The next day I hear that just after I left there was a huge blowout. The producers husband ( oh, Stanely's not the producer, this lady that's been hanging out and is really annoying is the producer, she's a doctor and finanacing the whole thing. First movie, knows nothing about making movies juest always wanted to make one.) ...anyway the producers husband comes out, tells everyone to fuck off and get the hell out of his house. Apparently an entire day of listening to the same shitty Indian pop song (its actually pretty good if you're into pop) has a negative effect on the aged.
At the end of the day (2days) I made 200 bucks ($40 of which i spent on supplies) and I haven't been paid yet.
Well where the fuck is Strathfield I ask, not that it matters, I'm going to say yes.
I dunno, says Sam, you can take a train though, its in the city.
Yeah ok, what are the details?
You need a focus pulling kit.
Shit, I don't have one, nevermind, I'll call around or pick up the gear I need....Uh, whats the directors name?
Guy's name is Shane, give him a shout. I'll be joining tomorrow I just happen to be out of town.
Shibby.
So I call the guy, get the details and grab my shower. FINALLY a hot shower. I call around and I can't get the stuff I need so I hit a hardware store for a tape and get some markers and gaffer tape from a new agency (Magazine shop back home) and hit the train.
I show up about 2 hours after I got the call. Oh hi Luke. Hi Shane. We're just setting up. Sweet.
Theres a massive gaffer truck outside with a HUGE generator. They type you tow. The gaffer is the dude that does all the lighting. This guy's got tons of it. The house is brand new and huge. And spotless. Almost no furniture. Inside I meet who I think is the producer, Stanley. Really nice guy. I speak with the gaffers, they're cool. Some dude named Nate was there, he runs his own production company, just starting out, hoping to get some work with Stanley in the future.
Suddenly people show up everywhere. All these old indian folks. Apparently we're shooting a party scene. So we take some measurements and start to film. The thing is, Shane isn't the director, Stanley is, but he's not really directing, he's kind of producing. And theres no AD. So no one is running the show. So Shane is sort of running the show. We film a few scenes of this STUNNING girl coming down stairs to announce the start of the party. Then we film some mingling, a close up of the girl again, then a guy coming down the stairs.
Suddenly, everyone is gone. Like that. (Picture me snapping my fingers) Like that. (Good) Now, for some reason, the people who own the house have a stage build in front of a window in the front room. What we find out is that there will be three dancing girls on this stage doing a routine. Traditional indian dancing, but kind of modernized and super sexy. The girls show up and they are gorgeous. Drop dead gorgeous. The only problem is, no one rehersed their routine with the stage.
We set up to shoot while the choreographer goes through the motions. 3 hours later, listening to the same shitty indian pop song watching these girls do the same three things over and over and all of a sudden they just decide to leave. Bang. Gone. We're standing their with this set up ready to go.
I'll shorten the next days story. about 2 hours set dressing, they decide to go back to the way we had it the night before. 2 or 3 hours standing around while they reherse. We finally get the shots. Then they reherse the stair part. Candles everywhere, one girl dragging this veil down the stairs, she alost lights herself up as the veil goes through a candle. About 9 my buddies leave. At 11 I left to make sure I can catch the last traing.
The next day I hear that just after I left there was a huge blowout. The producers husband ( oh, Stanely's not the producer, this lady that's been hanging out and is really annoying is the producer, she's a doctor and finanacing the whole thing. First movie, knows nothing about making movies juest always wanted to make one.) ...anyway the producers husband comes out, tells everyone to fuck off and get the hell out of his house. Apparently an entire day of listening to the same shitty Indian pop song (its actually pretty good if you're into pop) has a negative effect on the aged.
At the end of the day (2days) I made 200 bucks ($40 of which i spent on supplies) and I haven't been paid yet.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
The things you learn
My most recent project was a documentary about Sufism . Click the link, I won't attempt to explain it in detail. Basically its a kind of religion with roots in Islam and many paralells to Buddhism. Its about being in the moment and understanding that the moment changes.
Anyway, dude in the Blue Mountains is a teacher of Sufism. Cool guy too. American from Cali. Grew up just after the Height Ashbury days. We chatted about all the cool spots there are to visit in California as I told him about the bike trip I did there a few years ago. He told me about all the hippy rockers hes met, including Jerry Garcia. Speaking of which, this guy is also a composer, and a fairly talented one at that, as well as having an interest in film and is piloting a TV series.
Last weekend he and, I'm assuming his wife, or 'partner' at any rate, invited us to stay and film "Sufi-night", a non denominational evening where people could come and learn about Sufism. Much of the teaching was parables, and the poetry of a guy names Remi, a 13th century intellectual. It was a long day, we filmed till about 9 and then hung out for a few hours. I was the camera guy, which is alot of fun. I tried to be creative and film all sorts of things to jump to during the interviews. Its harder than it looks.
Everyone went to bed at about 11, so 2 of the guys and I went outside and smoked a joint on the deck. I've never smoked a joint on a holy man's deck before, but I think we were in the moment, so it should be ok. At anyrate we didn't do it to be disrespectful, it just seemed like a damn good idea at the time.
The next day we shot some interviews of people who study Sufism, the girlfriend of one of the students who is not involved, and the Shake (leader). He then took us downstairs and played some music for us. It was excellent.
We then drove home. The ride back was quiet. I jumped out downtown as we were passing a park close to my house.I walked home feeling tired but pretty ok. I needed a shower, and I was covered in bug bites from being out in the country. Mosquitos are rampant there.
I walked through the door and dropped my kit and turned the shower on. Just as I stepped in the phone rang. It was my buddy Sam calling to ask if I wanted to work on an Indian action movie with a Bollywood dance scene.
Ok then....
Anyway, dude in the Blue Mountains is a teacher of Sufism. Cool guy too. American from Cali. Grew up just after the Height Ashbury days. We chatted about all the cool spots there are to visit in California as I told him about the bike trip I did there a few years ago. He told me about all the hippy rockers hes met, including Jerry Garcia. Speaking of which, this guy is also a composer, and a fairly talented one at that, as well as having an interest in film and is piloting a TV series.
Last weekend he and, I'm assuming his wife, or 'partner' at any rate, invited us to stay and film "Sufi-night", a non denominational evening where people could come and learn about Sufism. Much of the teaching was parables, and the poetry of a guy names Remi, a 13th century intellectual. It was a long day, we filmed till about 9 and then hung out for a few hours. I was the camera guy, which is alot of fun. I tried to be creative and film all sorts of things to jump to during the interviews. Its harder than it looks.
Everyone went to bed at about 11, so 2 of the guys and I went outside and smoked a joint on the deck. I've never smoked a joint on a holy man's deck before, but I think we were in the moment, so it should be ok. At anyrate we didn't do it to be disrespectful, it just seemed like a damn good idea at the time.
The next day we shot some interviews of people who study Sufism, the girlfriend of one of the students who is not involved, and the Shake (leader). He then took us downstairs and played some music for us. It was excellent.
We then drove home. The ride back was quiet. I jumped out downtown as we were passing a park close to my house.I walked home feeling tired but pretty ok. I needed a shower, and I was covered in bug bites from being out in the country. Mosquitos are rampant there.
I walked through the door and dropped my kit and turned the shower on. Just as I stepped in the phone rang. It was my buddy Sam calling to ask if I wanted to work on an Indian action movie with a Bollywood dance scene.
Ok then....
Monday, April 4, 2011
The diary of a film school student - Cinematography
"What'd you do this weekend?" she asked me.
"Well, I put rails on the ground then pushed a guy with a camera down the rails on a little wagon called a dolly." 
"Why'd you do that?" I can smell half a carton of Camels, or whatever they smoke here, on her breath. Its nice."Well, so we could get the shot we wanted."
"Why didn't your mate just carry the camera across?"
I'm feeling quite patient tonight...
"Well, cause your footsteps make the camera sort of bounce on your shoulder, so we make like, tracks sort of, and then it moves smoothly"
"Yeah well, maybe your camera guy should practice. Sounds like a waste of time to me."I guess that's what you get for drinking at the local bar on a Sunday night. Not that I was out drinking on a Sunday night. I went out for a beer down the street to get out of the house for an hour after spending about 5 hours struggling with a POS computer that doesn't like it's new 3D program.
This weekend was actually pretty damn cool. Spent Saturday working indoors on a set setting up camera arrangements, and light readings. You ever notice those little numbers on an SLR camera lense. 1.4, 2, 2.8, 4, 5.6 and so on? Those control the aperature. Each number is a stop. That means that if you move from 2 to 2.8 you've gone 1 stop, and you've just cut the amount of light getting into the camera in half. You knew that though.
Here's something you might not know. Film only sees about 7 stops. So if you're looking at something kinda grey, you can go 3 stops in either direction before that grey thing looks pure white or pure black. Thats what those little light meters photographers use are for. To figure out if what you're taking a picture of is going to turn out.
The next day we went outside. Shooting with film outdoors can be a nightmare. A cloud can turn half your picture into shadows. Clouds come from no where. Clouds don't care what we're doing down here. Oh, and here's something else. The sun...it moves. So, that great reflection you got at 1, its no longer there by two. Which sucks because your focus puller needed to take measurements, so did your DOP, and the actor wasn't quite getting it, and for some reason the camera guy couldn't see through the eyepeice, turns out it was simply the shutter position, and it took about 40 mins to get set up. Oh and the guy in the corner, now he's so far in the shade that he's completely dark in this aperature. Damn.
But the cool thing is learning from people that actually do this for a living. People that have seen the pitfalls, know what's going to go wrong, and think of things you haven't thought of. Even cooler, is they don't tell you, they let you flop, and figure out where you went wrong.
All in all a very good weekend.
Oh, the chick from the bar thinks I'm pretty stupid. I told her I'm American.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Diary of a Film School Student - Producing a Short film
I've been having brutal insomnia. I don't know why. Had a long day yesterday, went for a run with the girl next door, should have slept like a drunk baby. Ended up watching Mork and Mindy, the Dukes of Hazard and The Love Boat reruns till almost 5am. Slept through 'an audition' which isn't a big deal because I'm not an actor and they had just asked if I wanted to try to fill in for a single scene in a student production. One of the guys is really pissed but to be honest I'm not here to make friends and I really don't care. Wow, thats callous! Ok I do care a little but really....
Had a meeting with my mentor today for my Producer's role. I thought I had everything together. Nope. Need to find a make up person, figure out catering and lock down my locations. I need to get my DoP to figure out our film stock, book the gear and get her crew together to practice. Need to get my Director and Production Designer talking. Need to get crew agreements signed. Need to decide on the cast so I have to book the applicants and then book a room and the film gear to do screen tests. It never ends. I don't think producing is for me. Maybe I should have gone to that audition. Hm.
So after the meeting I booked another meeting with my department heads for Friday and spent the next hour making notes about everything I need to do. Then I sat and chatted with a director from one of the other productions. I actually didn't think I'd like her (because I generally dislike everyone at first) but she turned out to be very cool and easy to get along with.
Fortunately I have a really good camera crew, for students anyway. They know their way around the camera and are excited about using it. My DoP is trying to figure stuff out already without being told so thats cool too. My Director and 1AD are a couple which is nice because they're both heavily invested. My 1AD is also one of 2 people in the school who seems to want to actually do that when he's done.
Well, 19 days to go....we'll see what happens next.
Had a meeting with my mentor today for my Producer's role. I thought I had everything together. Nope. Need to find a make up person, figure out catering and lock down my locations. I need to get my DoP to figure out our film stock, book the gear and get her crew together to practice. Need to get my Director and Production Designer talking. Need to get crew agreements signed. Need to decide on the cast so I have to book the applicants and then book a room and the film gear to do screen tests. It never ends. I don't think producing is for me. Maybe I should have gone to that audition. Hm.
So after the meeting I booked another meeting with my department heads for Friday and spent the next hour making notes about everything I need to do. Then I sat and chatted with a director from one of the other productions. I actually didn't think I'd like her (because I generally dislike everyone at first) but she turned out to be very cool and easy to get along with.
Fortunately I have a really good camera crew, for students anyway. They know their way around the camera and are excited about using it. My DoP is trying to figure stuff out already without being told so thats cool too. My Director and 1AD are a couple which is nice because they're both heavily invested. My 1AD is also one of 2 people in the school who seems to want to actually do that when he's done.
Well, 19 days to go....we'll see what happens next.
Handling Swedish Bi-Curiousity at an Advanced age
When you go back to school in your mid 30s, things are definately different. I can't drink until 4 am and get up at 8 and go to class anymore. I didn't before but I COULD if I wanted to. But I slept in usually.
Another thing I've noticed is that I don't relate well to younger people. Right now I'm acting as producer for a short film. I'm the oldest person in my group by far. On other guy just turned 30 I think. My entire camera crew is 20 and under. One of them asked me the other day what I thought I'd do after film school. I said "Make movies". She said "Oh really? I thought I might go back to school and figure out what I want to do." Really.
Some of the people in my class were born after the first couple of seasons of Sienfeld. They never saw the Smurfs on Saturday mornings. Not even the later episodes when they were holding on for dear life and introduced smurflings and a stupid prince. Some of these kids were born AFTER Appetite for Destruction came out. Most were in the cradle when Smells like Teen Spirit hit the charts.
The other night I went out with these girls I know from school. Notorious party animals, but really good at the stuff we're learning. I get to the bar, which has $4 drinks all night, and I can't find them because we're on 2 different levels. They finally find me and 2 of them are hammered. They go off to dance and I hit the bar with the 3rd. We get our drinks and look for the girls. They're on a couch making out next to the stage. I laugh and say, hey, your room mates are getting busy over there. So she just laughs and we head over. I figured they'd stop when we got there. Nope. The third one just joined right in.
So I'm sitting on a couch with three 20 year old swedish girls who are all making out. One ends up halfusitting on my lap for a while. Guys in the club are looking at me like I'm Hef. So they break it up for a while and this dude buys me a drink. He says, "I don't know which one's your girlfriend, but that's awsome mate!!" I just smiled. Later one of them would tell me I was the coolest 35 year old she knew. That made me feel good.... She then told me that if she was older, like 25 or something, she'd totally try to pick me up.
We get tired of the crazy loud techno/house/rap/dance/electronic 'music' we're being subjected to (to be honest I kinda liked it) and head to an Irish place called Scruffy Murphy's. I get wanded before I go in and have to pay cover. I hate paying cover. Most places don't charge here.
Now this place is weird, to get in you have to go through one door, up stairs, across the length of the bar, then back down stairs where there's another set of doors your only allowed to leave through. One of the girls decides she's too drunk about half way through. Right out of the blue. I go get her some water and she's just about comatose when I get back. Some dude was trying to pick her up. Then he acted like I'm an asshole when I told him to shove off. Oh, and her friends have ditched her. So I threw her in a cab. She invited me back to her place, but the shade of green she's turning tells me that that isn't a good idea. (Find out the next night she got kicked out of the cab for redecorating the back seat in a nice shade of sea food).
So, yeah, thats what I'm dealing with. How was your weekend?
Some of the people in my class were born after the first couple of seasons of Sienfeld. They never saw the Smurfs on Saturday mornings. Not even the later episodes when they were holding on for dear life and introduced smurflings and a stupid prince. Some of these kids were born AFTER Appetite for Destruction came out. Most were in the cradle when Smells like Teen Spirit hit the charts.The other night I went out with these girls I know from school. Notorious party animals, but really good at the stuff we're learning. I get to the bar, which has $4 drinks all night, and I can't find them because we're on 2 different levels. They finally find me and 2 of them are hammered. They go off to dance and I hit the bar with the 3rd. We get our drinks and look for the girls. They're on a couch making out next to the stage. I laugh and say, hey, your room mates are getting busy over there. So she just laughs and we head over. I figured they'd stop when we got there. Nope. The third one just joined right in.
So I'm sitting on a couch with three 20 year old swedish girls who are all making out. One ends up halfusitting on my lap for a while. Guys in the club are looking at me like I'm Hef. So they break it up for a while and this dude buys me a drink. He says, "I don't know which one's your girlfriend, but that's awsome mate!!" I just smiled. Later one of them would tell me I was the coolest 35 year old she knew. That made me feel good.... She then told me that if she was older, like 25 or something, she'd totally try to pick me up.
Now this place is weird, to get in you have to go through one door, up stairs, across the length of the bar, then back down stairs where there's another set of doors your only allowed to leave through. One of the girls decides she's too drunk about half way through. Right out of the blue. I go get her some water and she's just about comatose when I get back. Some dude was trying to pick her up. Then he acted like I'm an asshole when I told him to shove off. Oh, and her friends have ditched her. So I threw her in a cab. She invited me back to her place, but the shade of green she's turning tells me that that isn't a good idea. (Find out the next night she got kicked out of the cab for redecorating the back seat in a nice shade of sea food).
So, yeah, thats what I'm dealing with. How was your weekend?
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Sydney's amazing music scene
I'm from a town of about 80,000 people. Once a year some monster rock band, the stones, def leppard, meatloaf, someone like that will traipse through town and do a festival concert and everyone loses their minds and french guys put extra light on their cars and buy new ball caps with the name of the band on it so that everyone knows who they're going to see.
So here I am in a town of 5 million. The other day I saw the Trews were coming to town. Thats cool, they're from halifax, I used to hang out in Halifax once in a while, its fairly close to home, not a bad band, good canadian boys and all that. So I picked up the local music rag to see where they were playing. Holy shit. The music scene here is insane.
Here's a little taste of who's coming to town. These are just the people I know of. I am no longer aware of the latest shitty pop act that the Much Music/MTV zombies are being spoon fed because, well, not my job anymore.
Deez Nuts
Third Eye Blind (the beatles broke up at one point but these geniuses have the nerve to stay together all this time and TOUR? You had one song. Maybe. Its time to let it go...or did they have a recent hit again? Ok two songs...die!!)
Queens of the Stoneage (sold out, shit!)
The Trews
Rihanna
Chemical Brothers
Ke$ha (someone say shitty zombie fodder?)
DOA (going to this wearing my team Canada jersey, I don't care if its lame)
Mark Ronson
Afro Celt SOund System (at the opera house...tempting)
Eddie Vedder
Donavon
Neil Diamond
Stone Temple Pilots
Chris Isaak
Lionel Richie
Usher
Santana
Doobie Brothers
Motor head (going to this one becase I think Lemmy's already dead and they just haven't told him yet)
Cyndi Lauper
Uriah Heep
City and Colour ('nother good halifax band I think)
Jimmy Eat World
DMZ
Cherry Poppin Daddies
Good Charlotte
Dead Kennedys
Weird Al
BB King (tickets are outrageous....second job maybe)
Elvis Costello (be worth seeing)
Grace Jones
Tribute to Hendrix, another to Miles Davis
And thats just between now and the 20th of April
I've also seen signs around for Iron Maiden, House of Pain, Sum 41 (last night)Social Distortion, Michael Buble, Tim Robbins (he's got a band, who knew) and Alan Jackson
Then there's about 10 music festivals.
Outside music...Billy Connolly is at the opera house doing stand up for a few nights, theres an Annie Leibowitz exhibit at the museum, the terra cotta warriors at another museum and half a dozen film festivals.
I have no closing thoughts on this, I'm just amazed, thats all. here's a link if you're curious www.drummedia.com.au
So here I am in a town of 5 million. The other day I saw the Trews were coming to town. Thats cool, they're from halifax, I used to hang out in Halifax once in a while, its fairly close to home, not a bad band, good canadian boys and all that. So I picked up the local music rag to see where they were playing. Holy shit. The music scene here is insane.
Here's a little taste of who's coming to town. These are just the people I know of. I am no longer aware of the latest shitty pop act that the Much Music/MTV zombies are being spoon fed because, well, not my job anymore.
Deez Nuts
Third Eye Blind (the beatles broke up at one point but these geniuses have the nerve to stay together all this time and TOUR? You had one song. Maybe. Its time to let it go...or did they have a recent hit again? Ok two songs...die!!)
Queens of the Stoneage (sold out, shit!)
The Trews
Rihanna
Chemical Brothers
Ke$ha (someone say shitty zombie fodder?)
DOA (going to this wearing my team Canada jersey, I don't care if its lame)
Mark Ronson
Afro Celt SOund System (at the opera house...tempting)
Eddie Vedder
Donavon
Neil Diamond
Stone Temple Pilots
Chris Isaak
Lionel Richie
Usher
Santana
Doobie Brothers
Motor head (going to this one becase I think Lemmy's already dead and they just haven't told him yet)
Cyndi Lauper
Uriah Heep
City and Colour ('nother good halifax band I think)
Jimmy Eat World
DMZ
Cherry Poppin Daddies
Good Charlotte
Dead Kennedys
Weird Al
BB King (tickets are outrageous....second job maybe)
Elvis Costello (be worth seeing)
Grace Jones
Tribute to Hendrix, another to Miles Davis
And thats just between now and the 20th of April
I've also seen signs around for Iron Maiden, House of Pain, Sum 41 (last night)Social Distortion, Michael Buble, Tim Robbins (he's got a band, who knew) and Alan Jackson
Then there's about 10 music festivals.
Outside music...Billy Connolly is at the opera house doing stand up for a few nights, theres an Annie Leibowitz exhibit at the museum, the terra cotta warriors at another museum and half a dozen film festivals.
I have no closing thoughts on this, I'm just amazed, thats all. here's a link if you're curious www.drummedia.com.au
Gay Pride Down under...heh
In a bar studying notes on aperature and focal lengths. Need a break.
Down the street Australia's gay community is slowly and quietly working itself into a fervor. You see mardi gras is this week. There's a parade. Gay people LOVE parades. I just made that up, but it sounds believable enough I think. However, in Australia, Mardi Gras has become a gay holiday. Gay Lesbian, bi sexual and transgendered I think is the correct category. Christ, if the Republicans are right I'll have to add Dog Marriers to the list. They're usually right about these things too. That will be a long acronym. Anyway, its a gay holiday. There's a gay parade. The town has slowly been filling up with incredibly fit guys in shorts and wife beaters, drag queens, and moustaches.
Oh, I forgot to mention, I live about 4 blocks from the gayes neighborhood on the continent. There are dozens of stores selling pink boxers, tank tops, protein shakes (careful), and ball caps that say "BOY". In case you forgot. There are also fetish shops near by too. One has a manequin lying on its side in sort of a frozen, "I used to be crawling but i'm now frozen and have fallen over sideways" position. This poor fellow is wearing leather knee pads (heh), leather boxers, some straps, a collar, little leather mittens with no thumbs, and a leather dog mask.
 |
It says 'woof' on the other side of that cartoon bubble |
Imagine if you were doing your thing, straight or gay for this one I suppose, so you've got your little bags on your hands so you can't use your fingers, and you're fetishwear, and you know, of course, your dog mask. Imagine all that, and you died somehow.Left the oven on and the gas is leaking. You and your partner both have massive heart attacks. That whole autoerotic aphyxiation thing went totally wrong.... (Completely unrelated but I heard they're making a movie about Micheal Hutchens)... and thats how they found you. All leathered out with knee pads and a dog mask.
"We regret to inform you of your son's death. We think it was heart worms. Or maybe he got into some chocolate in the garbage. Naaaah, he was just gettin a little freaky with the dog mask ma'am! Have a nice day!"
Oh hell, I'll take a picture on my way to school tomorrow for you guys to see. I wonder if google adsense will start putting ads for sex shops on my blog after I post this story. Speaking of which, click on the links around here once in a while so I can get paid for writing this. You don't even have to look at the link it takes you to or anything, I don't care about that.
Anyway, its 4 am and I have a 10 am class. Bars here are open all night it seems. Maybe I'll do a documentary on leather dog fetishes. What style should I do it in....
Trippy house music fetish hounds of oxford
?
I'm sitting in a bar with a friend from Finland. We just paid $9 each for a pint of tiger. I paid less than 3 for almost a litre of the stuff last month in thailand. This kills me. I'll get over it. But it kills me.
The table we're at is covered in graphiti. There are people lounging on a sort of couch/bed covered in pillows and cusions behind us. Weird modern art is covering the walls.
We're surrounded by what look like art students maybe...four bikers, who might actually not be bikers, just gay guys, or both, are taking up a table beside us.
On the other side is a spanish couple. They're sitting on these ancient old chairs that look like they were built in the 30s. Ornate support exposed and literally framing the upholstery, claw feet, carvings at the apex of the curve on the back. At one time the chair and loveseat would have been covered in velvet. Someone, many years ago replaced that with leopard pattern. Its worn through in spots showing the foam beneath. They're fighting about something. She wants to leave but he's happy where he is. She's getting very animated. I almost hope she causes a scene.
There is a, I guess you'd say, band playing. A dj with a Mac setup with a deck and a digital scratch disk is laying down beats. A keyboard player with a crazy bank of midi is pecking out baselines and playing some strange melodies. On its own you would expect a rider on a camel to show up to see some sultan in a movie from the 70s. The whole thing creates this funky chill atmosphere.
Then a violin player steps up from the crowd, he's got a pick up on his fiddle. This has our attention. Outside a beer garden in Judic Cape Breton, when's the last time you saw a guy play a violin at a party? The guy gets up and pulls the bow across a string. One long note. And its got reverb. And its completely dischordant (is that a word). Then he pulls another. It sounds like in a horror movie when something is about to happen. Awful. Ruined the whole thing. Oh well, it was fun for a while. And the bartender wasn't bad looking.
As we were leaving, I noticed this place didn't have a name. Just a question mark over the door.
Probably should go home and get some sleep. School in the morning.
I'm sitting in a bar with a friend from Finland. We just paid $9 each for a pint of tiger. I paid less than 3 for almost a litre of the stuff last month in thailand. This kills me. I'll get over it. But it kills me.
The table we're at is covered in graphiti. There are people lounging on a sort of couch/bed covered in pillows and cusions behind us. Weird modern art is covering the walls.
We're surrounded by what look like art students maybe...four bikers, who might actually not be bikers, just gay guys, or both, are taking up a table beside us.
On the other side is a spanish couple. They're sitting on these ancient old chairs that look like they were built in the 30s. Ornate support exposed and literally framing the upholstery, claw feet, carvings at the apex of the curve on the back. At one time the chair and loveseat would have been covered in velvet. Someone, many years ago replaced that with leopard pattern. Its worn through in spots showing the foam beneath. They're fighting about something. She wants to leave but he's happy where he is. She's getting very animated. I almost hope she causes a scene.
There is a, I guess you'd say, band playing. A dj with a Mac setup with a deck and a digital scratch disk is laying down beats. A keyboard player with a crazy bank of midi is pecking out baselines and playing some strange melodies. On its own you would expect a rider on a camel to show up to see some sultan in a movie from the 70s. The whole thing creates this funky chill atmosphere.
Then a violin player steps up from the crowd, he's got a pick up on his fiddle. This has our attention. Outside a beer garden in Judic Cape Breton, when's the last time you saw a guy play a violin at a party? The guy gets up and pulls the bow across a string. One long note. And its got reverb. And its completely dischordant (is that a word). Then he pulls another. It sounds like in a horror movie when something is about to happen. Awful. Ruined the whole thing. Oh well, it was fun for a while. And the bartender wasn't bad looking.
As we were leaving, I noticed this place didn't have a name. Just a question mark over the door.
Probably should go home and get some sleep. School in the morning.
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