You Make Me Crazy When You...

Here are some photos I took last week at the Presets. The whole gig, I was just ecstatic -- apart from when Architecture in Helsinki were playing, they were rather dull. I know that I would only bore you with all the superlatives if I tried to put those feelings in writing (yes, I am aware that I gush a lot in this blog but really, when I love a band, I love a band), so hopefully the photos will speak for themselves.

I'm looking for a live recording of their set from this tour, can anyone help me out? Triple J?

Did I mention I love Melbourne?

Just a minute... May

(Florals, red hair and cupcakes. These are a few of my favourite things)

Watching... Family Guy. It will never get old.
Reading... Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll and Stasiland by Anna Funder.
Listening...The new Ouch My Face EP, my favourite discovery from Camp A Low Hum. While it would be impossible to beat their fuckin' ace live show (where their singer Celeste almost vomited three times!!), their EP is great for turning up loud and falling in love with Celeste 'cause she's so darn cool. Ouch My Face are having their EP release party this Saturday at the Tote.
Making... Friends and journalism contacts and lots of secret projects, which you will find out about later!
Wanting... Someone to offer me a job where I can write all day, go to gigs at night and get sent free clothes. Anyone?
Promising... To visit.

from August Street via Daydream Lily

Which Dreamed It?

'The time has come,' the Walrus said,

'To talk of many things:

Of shoes - and  ships - and sealing-wax -

Of cabbages - and kings -

And why the sea is boiling hot - 

And whether pigs have wings.'

Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass are constant sources of inspiration for me. If I ever get writer's block, I like to open a page and giggle at its nonsense.

You're the Dream Unicorn!

The next few weeks are going to be super busy for me, I've got exams in two weeks and I'm doing work experience at the Geelong Advertiser next week, so posting will be sporadic at best.

Back soon.

This House is a Circus

Nat Lynn Photography

Falcon Jab

Monday night was my second time seeing Ratatat. Even though I knew that the gig would be amazing, I was a little anxious that it wouldn't be nearly as amazing as last year's and would feel lame in comparison (CSS, anyone?). Turns out I needn't have worried. I got up close since I love watching how musicians translate what they recorded in studio to a live performance. Especially with Ratatat, with all their intricacies, distortion, pedals and loops. 

When I'm listening to Ratatat I tend to make the guitar sounds with my mouth, it's my way of singing along to their layered instrumental music. At the gig I was pleased to find that I'm not the only one who does it. I could hear the people around me do the same thing, noodling along with the guitarists on stage. 

Set List (which I stole):

Shiller

Crips

Mumtaz

Lex

Grapejuice

Flynn

Mi Viejo

Mirando

Loud Pipes

Falcon Jab

Wildcat

Gettysburg

Shempi

--------

Brulee

Seventeen

I thought Flynn was an odd choice for their live show, since it's so downbeat in comparison to the rest of their stuff, but I soon realised it was like the calm before the storm when they launched into their most dancey tracks: Mi Viejo, Mirando and (my three favourite Ratatat songs), Loud Pipes, Falcon Jab and Wildcat. Anyone who knows my full name might realise why I have a particular fondness for Falcon Jab, hehe.

Olwyn and I, taken by fasterlouder.com.au

Ratatat are playing in Wellington tonight, before coming back to Melbourne tomorrow night for their second show, followed by an afterparty at Roxanne Parlour. You can buy tickets here: moshtix.com.au. I really really hope they play some of their mixtape remixes, especially Party and Bullshit and Fix Up, Look Sharp.

Night Life

Photo credit: Hobo Gestapo

Cut Copy have just announced that they will be hosting a few parties around Australia to celebrate the expansion of their Cutters Record label. The Melbourne leg of the tour will take place at Roxanne Parlour on May 22nd, with both Cut Copy DJs and Knightlife on the decks.

Excited much?

Tickets can be bought here: moshtix

Romantic Writes

I have a rather romanticised view of newspaper journalism. In my head, my career is a palate of black and white, full of soft-focus close ups and high-speed car chases. With the pen as my sword, I talk fast, and break hearts. I am impeccably dressed, with rouge on my lips and a closet full of bold-shouldered jackets and spindly high heels. Editorial meetings take place in a room clouded with smoke where I, with a fag suspended between my lips, get sent off to chase that lead. I live on caffeine, guzzling numerous cups of coffee while I sit in front of my typewriter. I am a hard-hitting journalist who doesn't take no for an answer.

"... opening up the newspaper is the key to looking classy and smart. Never mind the bronze-plated stuff about the role of the press in democracy -- a newspaper, Kiddo, is about style."

But in reality, everything is different. There is no longer the demand for investigative journalism as there once was - there just aren't the funds any more and readers want short, snappy pieces, not articles that will change a law they never knew existed in the first place. The size of editorial staff is getting smaller and smaller as money is taken away from print journalism and injected into whatever the new media fad is. Though there probably is some truth in the saying that journalists are machines who convert coffee into copy, I just can't stand the stuff, let alone cigarettes. Well, at least I still get to dress up all I like and talk with a Brooklyn accent. 

Two of my favourite writers have dabbled in journalism, so surely they know what they're talking about:

"But what is the difference between literature and journalism?

... Journalism is unreadable and literature is  not read. That is all."

-Oscar Wilde

"Once a newspaper touches a story, the facts are lost forever, even to the protagonists."

-Norman Mailer

Ah yes, everybody's a critic.

RAFW: The Cassette Society

Photo Credit: vogue.com.au

RAFW: Michael Lo Sordo

Photo credit: vogue.com.au

RAFW: Magdalena Velevska

Photo credit: vogue.com.au

RAFW: Karla Spetic

Photo credit: vogue.com.au

Cold After Midnight

By Darren Mc-Donald, here (be sure to check out all the amazing Hannah Glasby photos too)