The light at the end of the tunnel

It's week 14 at uni and I have nearly finished my assessments. I still have three big jobbies to go, but at least there is more completed and less to go now. I have to do a zoning report, of which I really have no idea how to compile it. This is symptomatic of the planning masters in general. But hey, I'm nearly done!
On Saturday night, I had 3 parties to go to. Why do the parties always happen when you have assignments due in? What's more, it was Fiona Lovebeast's 21st, and a theme party too! So after the race to get two reports and essays in by 5 pm on Friday, I missed the closing of the costume shops, so I had to lame out for my cosi for the party. anyway, it was a cool party, very elaborate in the way that Fiona does best. Don't know what happened with that pinata that was hanging one metre away from the kitchen window, it didn't seem the wisest place to put it..
Then there was Phillipafuff's party, where I set up all her light n stuff. How can anyone NOT have disco balls in their house? I mean REALLY, everyone should have at least one disco ball!
And then there was Colin's house party in Vic Park. The poo flow i talked about last week happened on their street, so the pumps that were keeping it moving elsewhere were pumping outside their home. The whole nieghbourhood were giving hotels for the week, so they had their band playing until 3am, with the windows open! That was super cool, no noise worries, and full volume unitl we felt like finishing. Colin also forced me to play the drums for a couple of tunes. WOW so cool! I haven't played since I moved to Sydney in 1995, and it was great! I think I gotta start doing the band thing again. Drumming rocks!
Anyway.. time to finish this report..

Grant preaches about his new music.. again

I've recently acquired two new albums: 'Urban Biology' by Machine Drum, and 'Fast Asleep' by Funki Porcini. They are cruisy albums, with enough intensity to be great dim-lights-with-a-cup-of-tea-on-the-sofa listening.
Fast Asleep kinda reminds me of the 1992 album by KLF called Chill Out, which was perhaps the first chill out album as we know it (without entering into the world of ambient music). Urban Biology is another fantastic album on my fave label Merck Records. Everything I hear on that label is freakin' gold! This album has the same vibe as Geogaddi from the Boards of Canada, but with more busy sounds. Love it! gimme gimme more music, I can never get enough!

Am I destined to become a faceless government 'suit'?

Jeepers! I am applying for a government job, and the selection criteria just keeps on going! I have only ever worked for private companies, so I am not used to the endless forms and info that I have to fill in in order to qualify for an interview. Yes of course I want equal opportunity in the workplace, but do I really need to write it in an application? As if anyone who didn't want it would write that anyway! Ah, imagine if I get a govt job? ..rights.. time in lieu.. overtime pay! Wow, things that the world of small business never offered me. Of course i'm sure i'd be part of the machine in the govt, whereas I could have an opinion in the private world, but hey, I'd welcome the change.
Oh and to add to yesterday's entry, the premier of the state, Geoff Gallop, lives in Vic Park. Rumour has it his street got hit by the POO FLOW. So there you go, even the big boys can suffer sometimes along with the people. hehe.

Why brown can be a bad omen

Finally i have managed to learn how to put pics online via flickr. Its amazing how much one can learn whilst arsing about. Today I also discovered how fast a house can flood with poo when sewerage pipes burst. Yesterday a pipe did just that in the suburb of Vic Park, and a few poor folk had their entire ground floors covered in BROWN TOWN! Is that not the most disgusting thing ever?

strange new brand of noodles

bukkake noodles
Originally uploaded by mrlederhosen.

I kid you not, Kevlar just sent me this pic from a shop near his home in Nagoya. A new tasty brand of udon noodles translated to 'Splat' noodles! ..only in Japan!

mystery location

iconic gates
Originally uploaded by mrlederhosen.

5 points to whoever guesses what pink floyd album title was named after this place..

loungin in london

london-city parks
Originally uploaded by mrlederhosen.

the only relazing moment i've ever had in london, at the end of an absynth weekend

Waterspout ocean tornado almost reaches Cottesloe Beach. Clint uses superpowers to keep it at sea.

It's a great day out there today! It's sunny, warm and there are loads of fine folk out riding their bicycles by the river foreshore. The birds are chirping, there is a gentle breeze and some are brushing away the debris from last nights thunderstorm from their driveways.

Me? Well what would I possibly be doing this fine morning? Study. That's right, sitting here with a big ass assignment that is due this week, the report sheet is 5 cm to the left of my hands and I am about to start it. Actually I didn't really mean for this entry to sound so cynical, it really is okay and I don't feel too bad about it. I just want to be able to feel that carefree feeling of being able to have a weekend where I can laze about and truly feel relaxed! I have not felt that for so long. Those of you who work are always critical of students and their unstructured lifestyles, but at least after work you are free! I always feel guilty that I should be reading or researching something, and then, with that extra free time I allegedly have, I don't have any money to spend doing the things I want to do! Get a job, you say? I do have a part time job, but that hardly covers my expenses! What a vexing paradox! (hehe, I said vexing, I wanted to use that word sometime).

Well, life isn't too bad. I chatted with Kelin in Tartu Estonia the other day, and she was telling me they've had only 15 warmish days this ENTIRE YEAR. She is so over the cold she's going to Spain for the summer. At least I get top weather whilst I whinge about being over my uni workload. So life is okay after all. Hooray!

Where has Herbie been all my life?

I have just discovered the freaking awesome back catalogue of Herbie Hancock! I am patiently waiting for my 56k connection to give me the succulent 'Fat Albert Rotunda' record he made in 1969. Wow! This stuff is SO good! When I get my first full time job, I might just have to go on a Herbie spending spree and get all his jazz-funk era recordings.
I feel really lucky that I got to meet the guy, and sit front row at a concert he did in Vilnius in Lithuania. What's more, it was in an old Logan's Run inspired music stadium, and he performed for over 2 hours! .. and I got him a shag after the concert too! I was hanging at a night club with some folk I'd met a few nights before, when he approached me and asked where the 'girls' were. In all nightclubs in Vilnius, there is the 'back door' which leads to the strip club section. I was well pissed when he came up to me, and the locals had already told me what was going on in that place by that stage. Hehe, what a claim to fame!
So it's off to the record store for me! I knew Herbie was the man, but I had never checked out his history. I feel like a kid in a chocolate factory. Other new music in my collection includes Jimmy Edgar, The new Savath and Savalas album, Beck's funky new album, and Caribou, who used to be known as Manitoba until some idiot threatened him with court action over his name.

Crane-wrecking tornado in Perth

Tonight is the night of the year for nerds accross Australia. At midnight, Star Wars Episode III hits the screens and the marketing machines of toy companies throughout the land will explode with Yoda ice creams, darth vader underpants and who knows what else. I, for one will be at the midnight screening, not cos im a major nerd (well, that is arguable), but because I love the feel of a pumped up and excitable cinema audience, where people get right into what is happening and cheer and applaud. Not sure if me not dressing up will make me look like a party pooper, but all I have is a rubber Mr T mask, and that would like kinda silly wearing to a Star Wars event.
Did I mention there was a TORNADO in Perth on Monday night? It was just in the neighbouring suburb to me, in Applecross. Roofs were ripped off, cranes on construction sites were tipped over and a primary school was demolished. Hardcore stuff, eh? So now I can put that on my list of things i've survived. Though i didn't experience being in or near the tornado itself (I was 2 km away from where it happened), I can say I was in the middle of the hailstorm that destroyed much of inner city Sydney in 1999. There were baseball sized hailstones that night, and every car in my street was destroyed, not to mention most of the tiled roofs in Surry Hills and Newtown. A friend of mine had her porch ripped off the other night, kinda harsh for our little sleepy city of Perth!

Emma gets to see more cool bands than I do and I think its not fair

Got the coolest gift the other day, from Emma in Dublin. Wow it has to be the grandest funky present ever! An old super 8 edition of Saturday Night Fever! I've been a little too busy doing uni stuff over the last couple of days to dust off the ol' projector, but i'm planning to get it set up at the next party and have John Travota's pumpin moves on the wall as I pull on the roller skates. Emma is a major character in my euro travels adventures, she's a funky chicken whom I discoed with in my Dublin days. If anyone ever reads this, feel free to pressure me to pull my finger out and write something when uni finishes at the end of June.
I have this stoopid Alexei Sayle song stuck in my head, as karma for writing about the Young Ones in Julie's blog. Gosh she's trying to write an academic discussion site for her book, and all I could write about was Garibaldi revolutionary biscuits. Aah, at least its better than this document I am summarising about the Block in Redfern for Planning Theory 512! Ergh..

Ah, the computer lab. The lab of doom, the procrastination parlour, the boredom booster, the dullness driver, the life laxative. I could go on. I have now been at uni for 3 1/2 years, and I am starting to crave an existence that doesn't involve due dates and all night assignments. I know as soon as im working i will yearn for my lazy unstrucutured days of uni, but i am so over being poor and stressed. at least with work stress you are free at the end of the day and you get some money to keep the material urges satisfied. Errg, even talking about this is boring me! So I'll stop.
I was reading some stuff about ancient Rome last night, and whoah, life was pretty cheap there. People getting executed for upsetting their slave masters or member of government. Life is definately better here and now than it was then. Imagine having to wear sandals everyday? Yuk, an empire of hippy sandal wearers!

A film festival would be good. A few years back, there was an art house cinema only a short scooter ride away, around the corner from Central Station in Surry Hills in Sydney, called the Third Eye Cinema (also known as the Encore Cinema). It was run by this guy who owned most of the films he played, and he loved his old Italian and French stuff. He introduced me to the great Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky, and many a rainy Sunday matinee session was spent watching 'Solaris' or 'Andrei Roublev'. He managed to get an old print of Antonioni's 'L'aventura' and the standard funky 60's films like 'Blow up' and 'La Samurai'. He got in trouble for screening Pasolini's banned film 'Salo' which was disturbing, but really not that bad. I really miss that kind of cinema, there really is nothing quite like it here. In Berlin, I probably had the coolest local cinema ever. It was walking distance from my pad in Friedrichshain, and was covered in scaffolding. There was only one staff member, who would sell the tickets, serve drinks (yes beer as well - how REVOLUTIONARY!) and run up and change reels on the projector. There were dodgy school chairs, the room was fairly small and smoking was allowed. Now I'm no smoker, but there is a certain charm in an old cinema (preferrably in Art Neveau stylings) with clouds of smoke lighting up the light beam. I loved that place! My favourite moment was watching the OV (original version) of 'Amores Perros'. I had to guess my way through a Spanish film with German subtitles, whilst sharing a six pack of Spaten with my friend.
I suppose Perth has its fantastic Luna cinemas, I do love them, especially cinemas 3 and 4 in Leederville. I guess I just crave the neighbourhood thing, the community vibe. Perth is a modern city, there's not enough old trashy buildings around to make a place like that. hmm.. when I get some good money together, maybe I'll make my own cinema someday..

Bluurgh!
Had to devise a housing block plan using the R-codes of Perth today. It was one of those days where you just sit back, scratch your head and hope that everybody else also doesn't understand what is going on.
Oh and yes, I thought i'd publically announce that Jessica has a fabulous bottom. It's enough to create world peace.

Oktoberfest 2004 

dubya and the pope 

Crazy Chinese Wedding Chants

It's enough to make you feel old. I just went to another one of my ol' friend's weddings last night, and there were married couples all over the place! It was pretty cool though. Gav married a white girl, so there was this funky Asian and Irish-Australian combo party set up. Probably the coolest part of the wedding was finding out that Gav's second cousing is Michelle Yeoh, and heaps of his cousins were Hong Kong babes. Yeah, so he's related to a bond girl! I've known the guy for 14 years, and only now does he introduce me to his hot rellies!
The venue was decked out on the upper reaches of the Swan River, right on the bank in his Aunty's backyard in Guildford. It wasn't all peachy at the beginning though, we all know Gav is the most anally controlling kinda guy when it comes to his music (Gav's a long established dj in the Perth scene), so when it came to me being his dj for the night, I was kinda worried. Everything was timed to the minute, and then the bride arrived a few minutes late, as usually happens at weddings! I was hella stressed for a little while there ..Anyway, all turned out fine, the bride looked fantastic and his Dad gave the most awesome wedding speech I have heard! He managed to tell a story about Gav stepping on frogs and urinating on them when he was 4 years old. Ah, it was great! Jessica landed the role of unofficial photographer, so it was a busy day, trying to match our drinking with responsibility.

About my adventures in Europa, they'll have to wait until I finish uni. What say we petition Melika to make her blogs dodgy again, just like she used to?! hehe

a few weeks to go

two weeks since my last entry here! its been pretty busy here, what with mega assignments and ill-defined assessments to work out. its all uni uni work in my life, unfortunately not a lot of fun thrown in there. and on top of that, the graduate positions are coming up, and i just haven't got the time to get everything done.
I went to Bunbury for last weekend for volunteer work as a facilitator on the Greater Bunbury Dialogue. Got to meet Alannah MacTiernan, the Planning and Infrastructure minister and made a few contacts in the industry. the funny thing is, at the table next to me was an olllllld party friend of mine from the early 90s called Karen. She is now senior staff and all responsible, yet the last time I saw her was in the hills in the Southern edge of the Sydney metro area at a rave in a forest, sitting under a giant glowing mushroom. We (or at least I was) were frying our brains, i was wearing my smurf pants and dodging rogue laser beams whislt bouncing around to trance techno with a bunch of hippy ferals! So it was pretty suprising to be meeting her in Bunbury at a govt function! Hehe, Australia can be a small place sometimes.
well, Im in a better mood now.. just have to finish off this essay and presentation for tomorrow night now..
I've got some cool pics to put online too, but they'll have to wait til i get on the home compooter.
Cheers