So, it has yet again been confirmed that I am atrocious at keeping any form of record of my life. Maybe it stems from years of me neglecting and despising the journal I had to write for ballet. I do have an excuse this time though!
Melbourne was far to busy to sit down for long enough to write even a page about what was happening. I met wonderful people, saw some old friends, went to amazing gigs every night and just generally spent time falling deeply in love with the city itself.
But first, I will tell you the reason why I went in the first place. Kim Boekbinder is a musician currently based in Melbourne where she is starting to create her second solo record. She is an unsigned artist and is currently running a site called MISSION CONTROL where fans can subscribe by donating a as little as $10 a month. There's a blog where she's releasing new music every couple of days along with her thoughts and news of her progress. There's also a forum where you can meet other subscribers who are obviously of similar musical tastes.
Kim's a wonderful person and a spectacularly interesting artist so go check her out. You will not regret, I can assure you.
The forum is where I met another girl from Perth who had already planned to go over to Melbourne to see Kim's last residency show. I was considering it but after that was just thought "oh, why the hell not!" and so I booked tickets that week! I decided that I would just stay with friends rather than book a hotel for myself so I could see a bit more of Melbourne, stay for a few more days and not be completely broke once I got home.
To start with I was just going to stay for a Kim's gig and then leave pretty much straight away. I realised however that if I did go over to see Kim I'd miss Lawrence Greenwood (aka Whitley) and An Horse. Dilemma! I ended up booking a flight getting in Wednesday morning and leaving on the Sunday afternoon. I've never been on a holiday by myself like this so I was nervous but overwhelmingly excited.
More to come if you'd like to listen. I promise the story will get a little more exciting.
So, I just found out that carrots were originally purple and my brain imploded. Maybe this is no news to anyone else and I've been hiding under a rock called Perth for my entire life. I know, I'm a terrible vegetarian.
Also, if you haven't heard from every other social media site I assault with my ramblings on a daily basis, I'm heading over to Melbourne at the end of the month for a few days. More to come on that matter. I'm really just procrastinating before starting on a horrible looking chemistry assignment. There is no God.
I'm drinking creaming soda though so maybe their is a God. What a dilemma.
It's easier to copy the actions of another rather than do your own thing.
That way there's always someone else liable.
No matter what we do it's likely there's somebody out there that's done something similar,
so I'll just do what I want now and find the person to blame later.
Today an armed man held up a service station and a bottle shop. I walked down that same street about half an hour later, completely oblivious to the fact. I sat in a coffee shop on that same street for two hours; wondering what the waitresses were all talking animatedly about. At that same time, a student was held up and by the man and his keys demanded from him. It scares me how easily my day could have turned from relatively simple and pleasant to a nightmare. It makes my stomach twist and throat throb.
Alice is twitching in her sleep beside me. I hope she is dreaming of something nice.
I know I want to say things today but I'm at a complete loss of where to start. People much smarter than me have been posting some very poignant blogs in the past few days which have really astounded me and forced me into really thinking about things. Some of them wonderful thoughts...some of them I'd rather not acknowledge. They are so without hope. So against humanity. I won't talk about them. I'll try and scoop the good ones out and ramble on about them.
The hair on my head is growing nicely. It's still less than an inch long but I'm really not phased by it. I'm currently living by the philosophy that I'm not letting anyone think it's unattractive. I'm being confident and unapologetic about it and that seems to detract any negativity. It is just hair after all and I did raise a lot of money for an amazing cause so that's pretty hot in my books. Fuck anyone who thinks differently.
Amanda Palmer posted something on twitter so excellent Saturday morning this week that I had to screen capture it and post it to facebook too. Now it's on my blog (left). I also wrote it on my bathroom mirror. It deserves to be everywhere. What happened after that is history, somehow ending with a tumblr being created of all the people that had twittered in their armpits on a friday night. Seeing all those pits was fabulously inspiring. I actually came to the conclusion of doing it myself actually. Not shaving that is... Then my social concious reared it's ugly head and I was left horridly confused.
I then started to wonder how much of this social concious was formed by the people immediately around me that I cared about and how much was from the distant media and just my own head. I haven't let anyone really hate on my head and they haven't. I've had more compliments on my appearance from friends and strangers alike in the past month than I can remember in my lifetime. This gives me so much hope in a way...people will hopefully respect me regardless of what I do to my body. I was back on the beauty freedom
bandwagon.
I went to help with physics demonstrations today at uni and saw many staff I had not seen for the past month. They did not know that I had done the shave and didn't even recognise me. There was incomprehension on their faces as I tried to explain the Greatest Shave and my fundraising. Possibly even tinged with a little pity. One man I know rather well said with a snigger that he thought I was a boy. He followed the snigger with a quick apology. Hey, I don't care if people think I look like a boy. I'd be offended if someone likened me to cottage cheese but not something that I share pretty much all my basic DNA with.
Basically, I was surprised that some people in the physics department were the ones most shocked by me shaving my head. The people I know who seem to care about their appearance the LEAST were judging me. Maybe they just didn't understand the fundraising exercise?
After, I came to the realisation that just because they aren't following the beauty standards displayed in magazines, doesn't mean they don't follow rules. I think they are aware of how they look. How they reacted to my change of appearance made that obvious. The aim of the slightly socially inept: appear 'normal' and blend in as much as possible. This seems to be the trend amongst many of the hardcore science kids. It has been a long established fact in popular culture that nerds and geeks are unkempt: slightly unwashed, miscellaneous block colour shirt and a haircut so dull that cannot be described or commented on. Their aim is not freedom but invisibility-struggling over mere existence. Nerds are shown in the same way in mainstream media... their always the sweet, bumbling fools. The sidekick to the hero. Not enough substance for a leading role. Living in a shadow of obscurity and lack of self-expression. I couldn't imagine anything less empowering.
Fuck that. I can have imagination and learn quantum physics. I can wear a garter and stockings to my chemistry labs if I want to. Being a scientist and being a human being and being a scientist shouldn't be mutually exclusive. I'll do what I feel and make no apologies. No one can criticize what's done with confidence. I'll live how I want now because who knows when a man with a gun will hold me up in the street and demand my keys.
I have so much more to write about but maybe I'll do that when my brain is a little less mushy and more articulate. I finally got round to writing this at 2am. not the best start.
Last week was an insane flurry of musical evenings. I really should not have gone to any of them and stayed at home studying for the maths test I had yesterday...but I don't regret it at all. I'm also horridly hungover and possibly still a little drunk from Prosh this morning and so forgive me if none of this makes sense. I just wanted to get some of it down before details float out of my headspace.
Wednesday was Kate Miller-Heidke. She was singing mostly from her previous album and showcasing some of her songs from the new album out this week (totally pre-ordered). Her new music seems to have taken on a certain dark element that has not really been explored in her earlier work. There are more songs about the loss of love than love itself; seeming strange from a woman happily married to fellow musician and band mate Keir Nuttall. Many of them seem to be fictitious imaginings however it is claimed this is based on a true story. Who knows. I am very interested to hear upcoming interviews with Kate on how and why she thinks her artistic direction has changed. All in all however, she joked with the audience light-heartedly and played beautiful songs and Keir constantly impressed with amazing guitar.
This is one from the new album.
I would also like to mention the support act and backup vocalist for the evening, Madeline Paige (she's in the above video). Although she assured us that she was no longer pursuing music full time and was instead studying psychology, you could tell how much she love she has for music from the first song. She also did a fierce Feist cover. Respect.
Friday: Old Man River. A brilliant duo (Eliza and James Rogers) called Patient Little Sister opened the night. Their voices melt into one another in beautiful sibling harmonisation and I can personally vouch for Eliza's ability on the violin, as we went to high school together and have seen her play many times through the years. They're recording an EP right now but for the time being here is their soundcloud page.
The second support were three beautiful ladies from Simone and Girlfunkle. They had to battle with an ever-increasingly loud and raucous crowd which was really a shame because their soft melodies were at times lost on people who were not listening from the very front. I would really love to see them soon at one of their own gigs so I can give them a proper listen live.
I did not expect to feel what I did towards Old Man River by the time he had finished his set. Ohad Rein had not brought his band, but borrowed Lee Jones from the local Perth band, Sun Orchestra to play pedal steel guitar. alongside his acoustic set.
and holy shit.
Not only were the new songs from OMR new album fantastic live, I have not seen a man with a stage presence like Ohad's. He was obviously calm and confident in the music he was playing but at the same time perfectly genuine and gracious. After one particular song where he unplugged his amp, went out into the crowd and sang Open Up with no form of amplification there was complete silence in the room. That is unheard of from the Norfolk Basement. it's directly connected to one of the loudest, drunkest pubs in Fremantle for heavens sake. He was standing right next to me and I couldn't help but cry. It was just too beautiful to explain. You NEED to see him for yourself to understand. Once the gig had finished my friend Sarah and I went up and thanked him. how could we not? he gave my friend a drink, drew me something and we hugged goodbye. I not left a gig feeling so elated and at peace. I slept like a baby and woke in a fantastic mood. Tiny crush? Possibly. Possibly not that tiny.
This is him with Megan Washington, now just known as Washington. This is the first song I'd ever heard from him. That was a couple of years ago now. Sigh.
Onto, another Australian musician that does not get as much attention as she deserves, I saw Holly Throsby and her band The Hello Tigers at the Norfolk Basement. I was recognised by the security guard because I'd been there for Old Man River the day before (oops..). All awkward tendencies in Holly's initial stage presence washes away when she sings. I have never seen her live before but have listened to her music since high school so watching her perform is something that I've wanted to do for a long time. She's a beautiful live singer and it was clear to me by the reaction of the audience that she endears herself to all that see her. Honourable mention to Bree Van Reyk who is a master of the drums and completely mesmerizing. You can see from her body and expression that she feels everything that she is playing. I would pay just to sit and watch her drum for an evening. Jens Birchall is the other side of The Hello Tigers and a beautiful cellist and guitarist. I can't wait to see them again.
