This morning I woke up with a sore throat. It hurt like hell to talk. Okay, let’s just say I had reached the point of untalkableness. Making any vocal noise was rather painful and swallowing the fluids that my mouth naturally produced also became rather unpleasant because it felt like someone was rubbing a cheese grater against my pharynx.
I’ve had laryngitis and pharyngitis before and they have both inherently sucked. My mum takes to giving me this ridiculous Asian stuff called watermelon frost. I instantly think of an land where the ground is made of watermelon crust and I can make pink snowballs and untouched ice is the pale lime green that the edges of watermelon slices are like.
In fact, watermelon frost is the complete opposite. It’s this… powder that looks like someone probably coloured heroin a green colour. Not the pretty green colour of the exterior of watermelons, but the green that the colour of your stool is if you ate too much spinach the night before.
That’s often hard for me to imagine, so sometimes I imagine I’m a cavewoman with a crummy mortar and pestle made from two really sketchily shaped rocks. And I just crushed some leaves into a powder until it was… powder.
Nonetheless, this crap is horrible to put in your throat. I dislike unnatural remedies a lot of the time, especially when it comes to things like headaches, sore throats, and colds. Whenever I’m sick, I opt for honey tea, vitamin C, warm soups, and my personal favourite – water. And maybe some grapes. I don’t like taking painkillers because I’ve had experiences where they don’t really help.
I developed a headache throughout the day, which was really unpleasant. For the most part, watching Futurama cured it. I took apple cider vinegar for my throat, and I can tell you it burned like hell. Probably just as bad as chugging down plain vinegar. I can tell you though, if you think salt water is bad, this burns about a hundred times more than salt water could ever.
I’m listening to gypsy music now, since James told me about Armik, a flamenco guitarist with over twenty albums under his belt. I have listened to some gypsy music and it’s the kind of music that puts you to sleep. I dearly love instrumental music, and I really love listening to orchestral versions of classic songs or sonatas. Songs are very lovely when they can put you to sleep, and they can be very relaxing. I find that a lot of music from Japanese animation can be very lovely as well (think Laputa and Naruto – I don’t even watch Naruto but the music is beautiful). And then you get to artists like Explosions in the Sky, whom I saw last year with James. When you get to things like shoegazing and post-rock, it’s where it starts getting interesting.
I begin to see the structural and melodic similarities between instrumental post-rock and Mozart. Not all music does that, I guess.
I don’t feel like I hit many dead ends. I can sleep to heavy metal. I’ve tried dancing the Macarena to a rap song. Surprisingly, it works. I plan to develop a theory out of that.
Until then, I need to make sure my nose stops running and my throat stops feeling like it’s being poked with a flamethrower.
I don’t mean some sparkly fairy dust, I mean the band, Magic Dirt. Since seeing Adalita and Bob Evans (Kevin Mitchell from Jebediah) in a show last year, I had only heard of some of Adalita’s solo work. I knew she was in a band called Magic Dirt and I’d heard the occasional song, but yesterday I ventured on finding more of their music. I don’t listen to much music fronted by females, but there’s always something different about them. In Magic Dirt, I must say it’s different in a good way. I’ve only listened to two of their albums and their songs really vary. I like musicians who aren’t afraid to dabble in different genres.
That said, I suppose I’ll end up liking Magic Dirt, not just because Adalita’s in it and because I saw her live. Magic Dirt probably won’t be coming out with any albums soon since their bassist Dean Turner passed away in 2009.
I find a lot of Australian music to be underrated, at least around the world. Really popular Australian music gets a fair bit of attention here, but somehow it’s all overshadowed by American music and it’s kind of sad. Bands like Powderfinger, Silverchair, Jebediah, Wolfmother, and Magic Dirt – aren’t so popular around the world and a lot of people outside of Australia probably wouldn’t have heard of them at all.
I sort of like that Australia is like this “land down under”, and it’s hilarious that people think we have pet kangaroos, and that we all talk with at “Aussie accent”, but I get really passionate about music and I often wish Australian music was more recognised. Then again, I kind of like this little niche, and I suppose I tend to like underground music and indie music. After all, Jebediah produced their latest album Kosciuszko themselves. Also the best album of 2011 in my opinion, so.
Sometimes I get very excited when I talk to someone and realise we like the same bands, given that I don’t like many “popular” bands. When I find out that they know a lot about the band and are just as fanatic as I am, it makes me happy that we have something in common that we can chat about. Other times, I get annoyed, because I find that while this person is a fan, they don’t know as much about the band as I do.
A couple of years ago I realised that you honestly don’t need to know every single song by a band to be a fan of them. You don’t need to know all the band members’ names. You don’t need to know when the lead singer slept with his wife or that the guitarist used to be a toilet cleaner. Of course, it’s all trivial. I find that when I don’t know much about a band and meet someone who knows more, I learn from that person. Not everyone has the time to Wikipedia everything or the money to buy every record. Music, as always, should bring the people together.
I return to work tomorrow, and here I go being busy again. I love my job though, and I’m looking forward to going back. Like years of schooling gone by, it’ll take some time to ease back into the routine. I’m planning to read some books on the train instead of just staring out the window and daydreaming. I have noticed a lot of people have resolutions this year to read. I plan to do the same. I have about 12 books in my bookshelf that remain unread, and they need some love. I also have a large number of e-books that I plan to read. I used to read so much, and used to read about three books a week in high school, but everyone knows that towards the end, study takes over.
I suppose I’ve never really minded my train rides, and they used to seem really, really long, but after three years of catching public transport, the time seems to go by quickly. But, relatively. Whenever I’m alone the time goes slower, and always faster when I catch a train with a friend. I hope to be able to squeeze in reading whenever I hop on the train.
The past couple of days I’ve been busy cleaning out my websites, particularly fanlistings. I’ve dropped six in the past six days. Currently at 47, my goal is 45, but I see myself going to 40. Thinking back in November I had 87… I think I’ve done well.
I also have a new layout at my photoblog, so check it out and let me know what you think. My other blog has a new layout as well. I’m happy to be cleaning out all this stuff. Also, the free layouts page has all the themes in the Treats Collection so feel free to browse.
My nightlight was on and I was perspiring from having a woolen blanket over me. A bit silly – considering it’s in the middle of summer, but it was rather chilly before I jumped into bed. At 3:00am.
So it was 4:30am – or thereabouts, I couldn’t really tell because my eyelids were droopy – and I was well aware that I had not slept very much at all. I rolled over, ignoring the thick woollen blanket, and inhaled the scent of my pillow. There was not a trace of the alcohol that I’d accidentally dragged the ends of my hair through as I was leaning on the bar earlier that night.
I had remembered leaning on a bar, and I distinctly remember not drinking a drop of alcohol, unless sniffing the sticky ends of my hair in disgust got me slightly intoxicated. I just wanted water. I was leaning against the bar impatiently, dehydrated and out of breath. I’d gone to the toilet numerous times throughout the night as I’d drunk so much water, but now, as I lay in bed, cheek still on the pillow… I thought that perhaps I woke up because of the jug of water I had chugged down as soon as I got home.
Completely sober.
After visiting the toilet, I crawled back into bed, jumping over the contents of my bag that were scattered across the floor. Sunglasses, wallet, keys, notebook, jewellery I’d worn that night, camera bag… and I pulled the covers over me as I lay in the same position I had crawled out of bed in.
As I looked out of the corner of my eye at the analog clock on my dresser, something inside me ticked and I immediately flipped over on my back. On my bedroom wall across from me, I saw the Jebediah poster that had been there for a short while.
Six hours earlier…
Dylan and I were chatting over the music that came out of the loudspeakers, as he drunk from a glass of Coca Cola. I had opted for iced water, so as to save the water in the bottle of water I had brought. I had a dry mouth and I was thirsty from moving around. But we had to admit it – the Seabellies sucked. They had started late, which was unprofessional of them, and the mixing was bad, so much so that the drums drowned out the vocals. You could tell, though, that they had great music (heck, even a trumpet player!), but seemed like a bunch of great vocalists still attempting to get the hang of this idea of being in a band, and the hang of playing live. Six members in a band, four of which are guitars – rather unusual, rather crowded. They sounded better on the record.
After what seemed like twenty long minutes, I saw Kevin Mitchell, Vanessa Thornton, Chris Daymond and Brett Mitchell on stage as Jebediah, and they burst into one of their 2011 hits, Control. I could barely believe that I was right up front singing along to their music and hearing this song live. I looked at each and every single one of the band members. Ness playing her bass, low-slung, with all the enthusiasm in the world. Bopping around and turning around on stage as if she was having the time of her life. Kev was wearing what appeared to be the same jeans he wore to every other gig, his hair still ridiculously long and shaggy.
Brett, well he was just Brett. Or Brett on drums, take your pick. And then… I realised how much cuter Chris Daymond is in person.
Singing along to every song, it was no surprise I remembered all the words – their songs sounded like their recordings… but better. I waited for what seemed like forever before they played She’s Like a Comet and some of their oldest hits came towards the end, not before Kev announced that it was Chris’s birthday. Not before several girls yelled out “Vanessa!” and she cutely responded with “That’s me!”, big grin on her face.
Certainly not before he went insane on stage playing guitar with his mouth, and leaning over into the audience at the side of the stage while some knackered chick licked his shoe and another reached for his groin. Crowd insanity aside, at one point, Jebediah also buggered up the beginning of a song and halted…
“Sorry, that was my fault,” said Kevin. “Brett always gets excited to play the new stuff.”
I lost track of time completely, every now and then taking a photo when the lighting and lasers weren’t too blinding. The fog was definitely more tolerable than the lights. I knew that after they played a handful of their earliest hits from the 90s, I wouldn’t be hearing those rare favourites like Worlds Away and La Di Da Da – but I was certainly happy to hear Jerks of Attention and Leaving Home ending the night.
Last night I went to see Bob Evans and Adalita, two wonderful Australian musicians, live at a music restaurant/bar. Bob Evans is simply a pseudonym; he is actually Kevin Mitchell from Jebediah (one of my favourite bands). Adalita is the vocalist and guitarist of Magic Dirt, a band currently on hiatus following the death of their bassist Dean Turner.
James and I arrived at the venue slightly early. We were going to be very early, but I missed two trains from work, and James got caught in traffic. Eventually he found a parking spot near the venue (woo!) and we lined up where there was already a line outside.
We also passed a larger theatre where Opeth were playing. I haven’t any of Opeth’s music, but given my love for hard rock and metal music, something tells me I should like them and not judge the band by how long their members’ hair is (it’s longer than mine). Nevertheless I passed a line of typical metalheads, completely dressed in black and decked out in old sneakers and dozens of piercings. I’ll be honest; sometimes I am bothered by the fact that I don’t dress like a punk as much as I did before. People hardly expect me to like metal music or think I’m just some weird chick.
I don’t really know why we rushed. We did have seats reserved as we bought the tickets that came with dinner. We were seated on stage left, and had a pretty good view of the stage. We were entitled to a main meal. It wasn’t much but it was delicious and filling. James went for the salmon and I went for the chicken, though we planned to have half of each other’s dishes so we could have a taste of everything. It was rather nice. We decided to order dessert, but instead of getting the typical ice cream, we chose the cheese, fruit and nut platter.
Adalita played first, and I was a bit surprised to see that she was singing with just an electric guitar. I always thought that was a bit unusual but she played very well. I had only heard one song of hers prior to seeing her live. She really kicked off the show, which, I might add, was really laid-back.
There was a small intermission and our dessert came some time after Kevin came on stage. I prefer to call him Kevin as that’s his real name. I feel odd calling him Bob Evans, or Bob, as it’s just a pseudonym. The story goes that he saw the name on a shirt and decided to use it. After all, Adalita called him Kevin and most of his fans know who he really is.
Kevin was just amazing. I don’t know what I was expecting when I bought the tickets and persuaded James to come (he thinks I did more dragging than persuading ), but I knew it would be fancy and lovely. Since I had never seen him live nor had I read reviews, little did I know that he was wonderful live. In fact, after seeing and listening to him play, I prefer his live versions so much better than his original recordings. He started out with an acoustic cover of Last Christmas and burst into song with Nowhere Without You – one of his best hits. At the end of this song one of his guitar strings broke and Adalita had to change it for him. He said that he’d never had that happen and that apparently you break strings at the best gigs.
He played a lot of songs from my favourite album of his, as well as some newer and older hits. As he drank from a bottle of wine he let us know that the gig would finish once the wine did. And he did take his time drinking it. He sang some Christmas songs with Adalita and their guitar playing and harmonising vocals were just incredible. They did an awesome cover of Silent Night and Kevin ended the show by taking some song requests. He even did a cover of It’s Not Fair by Lily Allen, which was hilarious but just wonderful.
I got to meet him after the show and that was great, too. I asked if he minded me having a picture with him and he didn’t, so yay. I told him that I had tweeted him the day before and he said, “Oh, you’re Georgina!”
Last night James and I went to the Explosions in the Sky concert and it was truly amazing. I was expecting something great, from the reviews I read, but it was much better than expected.
James was already tired by the time he picked me up, because he’d been working all day. We parked at the station (lucky we found a parking spot, but it might have been because it was Sunday evening and it’s not that busy) and caught a train to the city, where the theatre was located. Since I had a bit of cash left on the refund card James gave me a while ago, we decided to spend it on a bit of food. We bought some beef jerky and dark chocolate.
We had walked past the theatre at 6:30 and no one was there, so we had a chicken bun and a pork floss bun. I brought a banana with me and ate that as we walked. James said it was like an emergency banana.
We arrived back at the theatre at around 7:00pm. The doors were due to open at 7:30pm. We hadn’t been gone long and there was already a line at the door. We joined the line and before long – only about ten minutes – the line behind us got much longer.
We walked into the theatre and stood at the front, right in front of the stage. James wasn’t too keen on standing so close to the speakers. He warned me that if the music got too loud for him, he’d move to the back but I could stay at the front. I secretly hoped he wouldn’t want to go to the back. Since I’m very short, I always try to go as close as possible to the front. Even in the third row at my previous concert, tall people were in front of me and my friend Dylan had to carry me at some point so I could see.
James was notified by a security guard that he had to put his backpack in the cloakroom. So much for eating beef jerky through the concert… nah, haha. We weren’t that disappointed and he felt better without it anyway.
The concert had sold out last week, so we were expecting a huge crowd behind us. The theatre wasn’t full until the show nearly started at 8:15pm. The opening act, Charge Group, are a four-piece from Sydney. Usually I don’t know what to expect from homegrown talent but most of the time they are pretty good. We were surprised to see that this band played music very similar to Explosions in the Sky. EITS’s music is instrumental, and their music is of the post-rock genre. Their music is hard to describe, but think of modern symphonies. Your classic music greats – Mozart, Beethoven – mixed with rock music, beautiful piano melodies and highly intricate guitar melodies. Charge Group were a bit more on the rock side of things, but with their violinist, they had a great edge to their sound. All of the songs they played were varying as well – some had words, some didn’t – and they varied in style. One was very catchy, others loud, and some really progressive.
The bassist of the group was so dull; he seemed way out of it, and he didn’t have any enthusiasm. (Maybe he had a bad day.) The lead guitarist/singer and the violinist made up for his dullness though. They were so enthusiastic and I was completely intrigued by the lead – he was moving around and really putting all his energy into his playing. He moved his neck around and back and forth. I enjoyed watching him and the violinist, and the drummer was so swift and excellent.
During the intermission, while the stage was being changed, the curtains closed. James and I had a chat and as we were talking and looking at the crowd, I recognised a girl behind me. She was Diana, a girl I went to primary school (ten years ago!) with. After finally asking her, “Hey, are you Diana?” she gasped in shock and exclaimed, “Oh my god, Georgina! I haven’t seen you in over like seven years!”
We had a small chat before EITS played. What are the chances of seeing her, right behind me, at an Explosions in the Sky concert? Of all the places. :’)
Explosions were just amazing. Just incredible. They turned on the fog machine. At this point the crowd whistled and cheered loudly. The whole time they had been rather quiet. People barely moved. I was glad there were no moshpits or people jumping.
During the first couple of songs, there were photographers in the section between the audience and the stage who had photo passes so they could take photos on their professional cameras. I was so annoyed at this one guy who didn’t move from his position and blocked my view of the lead guitarist, Michael. The other photographers moved around. Thankfully they were only allowed fifteen minutes of photographing before they were ushered away by security guards.
EITS didn’t play my favourite song, So Long, Lonesome; they didn’t have a keyboard on stage and it does play a major role in that song. However, they played some of their best hits and they played well. They were wonderful live; just like how they sounded on the recordings. Standing in the audience I felt amazed by their playing, and I saw that they had their eyes closed as they played. It felt like the times I had listened to their music at night as I drifted off to sleep.
They played for ninety minutes straight. During that time, I felt like I was floating, I felt numb, I stared into space – I was just blown away. I nearly cried. I think I would have, but my antidepressants have been making me feel less emotional, so my emotion didn’t hit the extreme of tears coming out of my eyes. It was upsetting that they just put down their instruments and only Munaf (one of the guitarists) farewelled us. There was an extra stage guitarist (not in the band) who waved at us. I could see they were so exhausted though; Michael was sweating so much sweat was dripping down his guitar.
I took a lot of photos; I’ll be sure to share a bunch of them or post them on my photoblog so keep an eye out.
James and I had some beef jerky and dark chocolate on the way home. It was a wonderful night. I’m glad I could have such a wonderful experience and could share it with James.
), but I knew it would be fancy and lovely. Since I had never seen him live nor had I read reviews, little did I know that he was wonderful live. In fact, after seeing and listening to him play, I prefer his live versions so much better than his original recordings. He started out with an acoustic cover of Last Christmas and burst into song with Nowhere Without You – one of his best hits. At the end of this song one of his guitar strings broke and Adalita had to change it for him. He said that he’d never had that happen and that apparently you break strings at the best gigs. 
And he did take his time drinking it. He sang some Christmas songs with Adalita and their guitar playing and harmonising vocals were just incredible. They did an awesome cover of Silent Night and Kevin ended the show by taking some song requests. He even did a cover of It’s Not Fair by Lily Allen, which was hilarious but just wonderful. 
