The lovely Dave bought me a 75-300mm lens for my camera and yesterday we went for an xmas walk on the beach. I cannot wait until spring when the light is better...prepare for lots of photo spam.
See you in 2010!
Yesterday our neighbour had me help with a bird emergency. There was a
starling in her back garden who had gotten caught up in the netting
from one of these. It had managed to get most of itself free but the
netting was still wound around its tongue...and there was still a bit
of fatball left in the netting so it was dragging the poor wee things
tongue out. It was horrifying...there was blood everywhere which stood
out more in the snow. I cannot stand to see animals in pain and
normally i would be a basketcase...but I just picked him up and held
him whilst i had Dave go get some scissors. We managed to snip the
netting off as close to his tongue as possible but it was pretty
damaged. After i had set him down on the snow again he flew away quite
happily so my mind is choosing to believe that he survived.
I can still feel his little hea5rt beating away in my hand...like a phantom limb.
Please don't buy these...or if you do shred the netting and put the fatballs in a fatball feeder.
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elizabethandthecatapult.com ♥ myspace.com
The last time we mentioned Elizabeth and the Catapult, the song "Race You", went straight to the top ten on The Hype Machine. And it's easy to see why, the song is such a fun and cute pop song.
This Christmas song, "Christmas with the Jews", is also fun and cute (and not to mention quite short). But what you're thinking when you're listening to this song, is "er, aren't you forgetting Hanukkah?"
Maybe you can ask them if you see them live:
- 01/28/10 The Barn Clinton, New York
02/05/10 World Cafe Live Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
02/06/10 8x10 Baltimore, Maryland
myspace.com ♥ twitter.com
Maybe there was a problem with my download, but the MP3 track is 4:56, where the last 30 seconds of the song is complete and utterly garbage... it sounds like it was encoded in error and not part of the song. I've edited out the crap part for you.
The tour information they sent me is as follows:
- January 2010.
Fri 8 USA New York Terminal 5 w/Passion Pit.
Sat 9 USA New York Terminal 5 w/Passion Pit.
Mon 11 USA New York Union Hall.
Tue 12 USA New York Pianos.
February 2010.
Sun 21 Norway Oslo John Dee w/The Temper Trap.
Mon 22 Denmark Copenhagen Vega w/The Temper Trap.
Tue 23 Denmark Copenhagen Vega w/The Temper Trap.
Wed 24 Sweden Stockholm Debaser Slussen w/The Temper Trap.
Fri 26 Germany Hamburg Molotow w/The Temper Trap.
Sat 27 Germany Berlin Postbahnhof w/The Temper Trap.
Sun 28 Germany Cologne Gloria w/The Temper Trap.
March 2010.
Tue 2 Germany Munich Atomic Café w/The Temper Trap.
Wed 3 Germany Frankfurt Nachtelben w/ The Temper Trap.
themanchesterorchestra.com ♥ myspace.com
My favorite track is "One Hundred Dollar", you can simply hear the anger as singer Andy Hull asks to borrow $100. While the song is short and doesn't offer much explanation, you, as the audience makes up your own background to the song. Anyway, the song is from their latest album, Mean Everything to Nothing, they'll probably be playing loads of their new songs on tour:
- 01/29/10
Salt Palace Convention Center^ Salt Lake City, Utah
01/30/10 The Fillmore^ Denver, Colorado
01/31/10 The Black Sheep* Colorado Springs, Colorado
02/02/10 The Marquee* Tulsa, Oklahoma
02/03/10 Juanita’s Cantina Ballroom* Little Rock, Arkansas
02/04/10 New Daisy Theatre* Memphis, Tennessee
^ with Brand New
* with Harrison Hudson
siamusic.net ♥ myspace.com
Finally, we have Sia. This actually has nothing to do with Christmas, unless you count getting a new music video as a holiday gift. But just talking about the video for "You've Changed" isn't enough to warrant its own article, so I thought I might as well stuck her here.
Sia has always seem to me to be this child trapped in a grown-up's body. The latest video is wonderful, it features this weird stop-motion, "dress up" video-gamey feel to it. I don't know who's idea it was, I'll bet it's a combination of Sia's child-mind and director Dennis Liu of @radical.media, but it came together pretty great.
Be sure to watch the high-resolution video of it (you'll need it to read the song lyrics scrolling at the bottom).
12/23/2009 04:58:16 ♥ vu (
) ♥weheartmusic.com♥twitter.com/weheartmusic♥news.weheartmusic.com
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01/23/10 Ampere München
Discography
01/24/10 Studio 672 Köln 01/26/10 Magnet Berlin 01/28/10 Rocking Chair Vevey 01/29/10 Ziegel Oh Lac Zurich 02/01/10 Prinzenbar Hamburg 02/09/10 Thekla Bristol 02/10/10 Hare & Hounds Birmingham 02/11/10 Brudenell Centre Leeds 02/12/10 ULU London 02/13/10 Audio Brighton
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Straitjacket Escape ♥ photo by Dave
The straitjacket incident was obviously the most epic moment of the night, but the theatrics didn’t end there. There was interpretive dancing, rogue boomerangs, and a pretty intimidating box accordion. Throw in a picturesque stage setting and a watering can attached to the drum kit, and it wasn’t an average Webster Hall show. The band managed to take a spacious, relatively normal venue and shift the atmosphere to match that of the album: warm, enthusiastic, and frenzied.
Fanfarlo ♥ photo by DaveWith only one album, they had a limited supply of songs to play. My personal favorite, “I’m a Pilot,” drew from the band’s most appealing quality: their infectious camaraderie. This was most apparent during the encore, when they had run out of songs to sing, so they resorted to the obligatory cover, Low’s “Just Like Christmas,” featuring opening band, Freelance Whales. Anything holiday-related is instantly a cheese-fest, but throw in a cavalcade of instruments and a dozen earnest musicians and it becomes easy to suspend any cynicism.
(I really wanted to end this review by writing, “...and by the end of the night, you could say that the entire audience had shed an emotional straitjacket – and put on a fringed vest of love.” But I won’t. Swearsies.)
Photos by Dave:
Fanfarlo ♥ photo by Dave 
Fanfarlo
Fanfarlo
Fanfarlo & Freelance Whales
12/22/2009 00:12:42 ♥ kateg (
)
♥ fanfarlo.com
♥ myspace.com/fanfarlo
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The Zatoichi series ran 26 movies (1962-1982) and a television series ran for five years (1974-1979). Twenty years later, Takeshi "Beat" Kitano reinvented Zatoichi with his version of the character. This was easily one of my favorite movie at the time, I saw it at the independent theater twice in 2003 and ordered a region 3 release of the DVD as soon as it was available on import. Incidentally, to show support for the US market, I also bought the US edition of the DVD, which came with a bonus Sonatine movie (which was originally released in the states by Quentin Tarantino's Rolling Thunder productions).
Considering the movie did quite well, critically and (I'm assuming) in sales, I was hoping for a follow-up movie by Kitano, but unfortunately there's no such plan. However, interestingly enough, one of my all-time favorite Japanese director, Takashi Miike* directed a stage adaption of Zatoichi for live performances in 2007.
I'm happy to report that, I saw a very good re-imagined of the familiar character, reinvented as a female protagonist, called Ichi. I wish the producers had kept the brand of "Zatoichi", as people who hear "Ichi" does not always associate the name with the blind swordsman. To be fair, Ichi is the original character's name. The term "zato" means low-ranking blind person (low-ranking in the Todoza guild). Logically, they could've named this movie Gozeichi, because Goze refers to blind musician women of that time period.
Anyway, beside my gripe about the Ichi name as the movie title, I also didn't like the idea that a model (Ayase Haruka) is playing the part of the protagonist. All that was really not worth worrying, because the whole movie is quite entertaining and enjoyable, and there is only once where Haruka is seen 'dolled up' for a music performance (most of the movie, she's covered from head to toe in dirty rags). However, there are at times when the director Fumihiko Sori choose to stay too long on Haruka's beautiful unblemished face. We get it, she's cute.
The story is uncomplicated, Ichi wanders into some town with an inept sword-drawing samurai Toma (the name is close to a slang "tonma" for idiot or fool). The town is in trouble from the Banki gang, and in Zatoichi fashion, Ichi and Toma saves the town. During the course of the film, there are the tried-and-true Zatoichi moments like slashing out the lights and Ichi triumph in complete darkness, the use of sound to throw Ichi off, and, of course, the Cho-Han Bakuchi dice gambling.
What made the film interesting, at least to me, is that the soundtrack is by Dead Can Dance's Lisa Gerrard! So throughout the movie, you do hear that ethereal vocals, similar to her efforts on Ridley Scott's Gladiator. I suspect she only wrote the vocals, the credit I have for composer is Michael Edwards, who previously worked with Gerrad on her solo material. The soundtrack was a bit of a surprise to me, generally these J-movies' music and production team are usually kept inhouse. Although, having said that, the one outro credit song is by Korean J-Pop singer SunMin.
Ichi the movie will be made available in the US market via Bluray and DVD in two days (December 22nd), just in time for last-minute xmas shoppers. Hopefully those Best Buy tonmas will be smart and order some copies for their store (however, if it costs over $25, I'd rather order it online, or not own it at all - hey times are tough!).
* I love all three billion of his movies! Audition, City of Lost Souls, One Missed Call, Ichi the Killer, Fudoh, The Happiness of the Katakuris, Zebraman, Sukiyaki Western: Django, etc.
12/20/2009 02:06:34 ♥ vu () ♥funimation.com/ichi
See you later people.
We leave soon to go to Sydney for the night then fly away in the morning.
Fun will be had, cocktails will be had, massages will also be had. And by the look of my glowing white legs I'd say a dose of sunburn may be had.
And I'm thinking by the look of my crazy hair I might come back with dreadlocks. Because I'm not taking a hair straightener and I'm not even going to dry it with the dryer. It can just go wild for the next week or so. Will pack plenty of hair elastics.
So I wish all my friends and neighbours here on vox a very merry christmas. I'l think of you lot over there in the snow and sleet while I'm lying on my sun lounge soaking up some rays. And to all my aussie neighbours I hope the weather gods treat you well and you don't get a real scorcher for christmas day.
I think this is the first christmas, or even December, of my life that I haven't eaten ham. Can't say I'm missing it either.
Catch you on the flip side guys.
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For this Christmas, I did buy myself Swords deluxe edition via my favorite store, amazon. It was a bit pricey for a CD/DVD combo ($23 vs $12 for the standard disc), but I'm worth it.
I actually have had a digital copy of the B-Sides compilation since late October, thanks to pen pal friend Mel, as it was a "bonus" if you had preordered tickets to see Morrissey in live in 2009. And of course, like most fans, we still buy the physical release anyway, so it's a bit of a win-win situation for everyone.
I'll briefly summarize Morrissey's history: he's a bit of a sensitive, indie songwriter with The Smiths. He went solo in "nineteen-eighty-hate" with some classic modern rock hits with "Suedehead" (aka that "I'm So Sorry" song) and "Everyday is like Sunday". He went a bit rockabilly with Your Arsenal (his previous album Kill Uncle was heading to this direction, especially with the B-Sides and singles from this era), and pretty much stayed in this "muscular" rock type music since. As I previously mentioned, I think this has to do with his musical collaboration with Boz Boorer and Alain Whyte.
If you're new to Morrissey, I don't think Swords would be a good starting point for you. I would recommend starting with Bona Drag, a weird mix of b-sides and oddities. Most of the songs on Swords were co-written by Alain Whyte, and there's a nice cohesive feel to each song as they have similiar song writing structure. When you do run into a non-Whyte song, such as "Sweetie-Pie", it just feels out of place. In fact, I think this is possibly one of the worst Morrissey song, right up there with "Michaels Bones".
There is one non-Morrissey-penned song, and it's a live recording of "Drive-In Saturday" (live at Omaha on 11 May 2007). Morrissey's music obsessions tend to be from the 60s and 70s era, so it didn't surprise me to hear him doing a David Bowie cover from the Aladdin Sane time period. But the two are friends, I know that Bowie showed up at a Morrissey show in Los Angeles in the early 90s to do a duet of a T.Rex's song for "Cosmic Dancer", and, of course, Bowie would later record a soul-ish version of Morrissey's "I Know It's Gonna Happen Someday" in 1993.
Also, it seems in post-2008, Morrissey's songs have been about fatherhood and retirement. Just looking over his titles: "Good Looking Man About Town", "Don't Make Fun of Daddy's Voice", "Teenage Dad on His Estate", "Children in Pieces", that "constipated look" for Swords, and that controversially album cover for Years of Refusal ... you would think that he's married with kids. Maybe that's not a bad thing, with Morrissey's heath in question, maybe he should take it easy. We all can't be like James Dean, you know.
12/19/2009 03:47:04 ♥ vu () ♥itsmorrisseysworld.com ♥ truetoyou.com ♥ morrissey-solo.com
Today the lady at the bank flummoxed me.
But I was doing something else at the same time so I didn't realise she'd flummoxed me until I got home.
I said to her
if I lose my credit card in Thailand is there a number I can ring?
and she said
yes, it's on the back of the card
But now I see that thats not really going to work.
Nevermind, because my day 2 plan involved researching phone numbers for mastercard, all the places I can use a mastercard in Thailand, and where to ring if I lose it, phone numbers for local police, tourist police, the australian embassy and hospitals. I have sent copies of all our passports and insurance details to Emjay and filled in my travel journal with her phone number and my brothers details.
Honestly, I should have been a wedding planner. No stone is left unturned.
I have just finished cleaning out the fridge and tomorrow I will give the house a quick hoo ha. Because even though I am a terrible housekeeper, there is nothing worse than coming home after a nice holiday, to a dirty house. I have set up a light on a timer to come on each night so Betty isn't scared and I'm considering setting up the airconditioner to come on for a few hours each day for her so she won't be too hot. I haven't decided yet if this is really needed. Daz thinks it is but he is a city boy. I grew up on a farm where dogs lived on chains and had a log to sleep in.
I have bought our little baggies to put all my dangerous liquids and explosive lipsticks in, I have returned my library books, asked the neighbour to put out our rubbish and I am now about to take off my toenail polish, snip my nails down a bit and coat them with a cheery holiday colour. Which I wish was green but I couldn't find a nice one.
And thats about it for today I think.
If I've forgotten anything, feel free to let me know.
Back on track. But so hot here today. And windy. And stuffy.
So today is get all the final little bits and pieces I want to add to the pile.
I know it looks like there's a lot of wet ones there but I'll be the one laughing when there's no toilet paper somewhere we go. They they'll all be calling for me.
Muesli bars because Emjay has convinced me I must never eat on a plane for fear of food poisoning. Because then there will only be 2 toilets between hundreds of people. And my wet ones would be in high demand then.
Diarrhoea tablets, because..... well because its starting to sound like I have some fixation with toilets and bowels.
Lots of antiseptic handwash, allergy tabs because I always get itchy and ear wax because my ears get sore in water. I think I only need to add panadol and mylanta.
I'm sure I can buy all this stuff over there for half the price. I should have been a girl guide. Apprently you can get all your prescription meds there with no prescription really cheap.
And I'm cashed up in baht now. I felt like I was carrying a brick around in my handbag. Just enough for us all to get through a few days.
And now I'm off to take up my temple pants. Bought a pair of light white longs in case we go anywhere where they like you to be fully covered.
Which means getting out the trusty old sewing kit. Look, it even has white cotton.
Then its off to my doctor to see what he thinks about what the hospital doctor told me and advised.
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