This morning on my commute into work I sat next to one of the worst smelling men I have ever come across. After a while I started to worry that the smell was attaching itself to my body and clothing, both of which I had gone to the trouble of recently cleaning. I wanted to ask him exactly how you could smell that bad, especially first thing in the morning. Naturally though, I didn't.
Saw the funniest numberplate I've seen in a while on my way home last night. DUBL-07. What type of car was it on you ask? A classic Aston-Martin? No, a Toyota Corolla.
One of my colleagues today told me a story about how Alby Mangels tried to pick her up in a bar when she was 22, then left messages on her phone for the next week, trying to get her to go to Africa with him. Then another colleague added that he also pestered her friends' Mum for a while. I thought this was awesome - I always wondered how he always had a different lady friend with him on all those "World Safari" movies, as it turns out, the key was hitting on every woman in sight until someone said yes.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Monday, February 25, 2008
I'm not racist, but . . .
It would be nice to ring my internet provider and talk to an Australian. In Australia.
I rang Dodo on Friday to complain about what I believed to be overcharging on my account. The girl (presumably based in Mumbai) told me that it was because I had 10gb of downloads a month, only five of those were in peak times, and I would have to use the other five in off peak periods (which would be awesome if my hobbies included surfing the net between the hours of 1am and 9am).
So anyway I told her I didn't believe I had that explained to me when I changed my package, and she said someone would call me back within 48 hours to play me the audio recording of my phone call, presumably with me agreeing to said conditions. It's now Monday and this hasn't happened, but whatever . . .
At this point, I suggested I might like to upgrade my package, to include an extra 10gb of downloads a month (giving me 10gb total in peak periods) for an extra $10.
She said she could help me with this, and after putting me on hold, came back after a while and explained two things.
1) My increase in downloads would occur with my new package starting at the end of March, a month away, and
2) If I wanted to downgrade my package at any point, there would be another fee, of roughly $100.
At this point I told her to cancel the upgrade, leave everything as it is. It seemed like she understood me. She asked me if I was happy with the call, and I said "Not really", to which she said "I understand".
Evidently she did not.
Because I got into work this morning and found an email from Dodo explaining that they were upgrading my account with increased download limits in March.
Now I think Indians are generally pretty smart people. They seem to make fine doctors and engineers. Not so much with the call centre jobs though. I presume it is because of the "English as a second language" thing. All I know is that I feel like I'm talking to a child when I try and explain myself to them. I was saying today that because they work on standard scripted answers, it's like talking to a computer, not a person, if you don't ask the right question, phrased the right way, they don't know how to deal with it. The whole time I was on the phone (including all of the breaks to "go talk with a supervisor") I couldn't help but think if I could talk to an Aussie in an Adelaide call centre I'd have the whole thing sorted in two minutes.
I rang Dodo on Friday to complain about what I believed to be overcharging on my account. The girl (presumably based in Mumbai) told me that it was because I had 10gb of downloads a month, only five of those were in peak times, and I would have to use the other five in off peak periods (which would be awesome if my hobbies included surfing the net between the hours of 1am and 9am).
So anyway I told her I didn't believe I had that explained to me when I changed my package, and she said someone would call me back within 48 hours to play me the audio recording of my phone call, presumably with me agreeing to said conditions. It's now Monday and this hasn't happened, but whatever . . .
At this point, I suggested I might like to upgrade my package, to include an extra 10gb of downloads a month (giving me 10gb total in peak periods) for an extra $10.
She said she could help me with this, and after putting me on hold, came back after a while and explained two things.
1) My increase in downloads would occur with my new package starting at the end of March, a month away, and
2) If I wanted to downgrade my package at any point, there would be another fee, of roughly $100.
At this point I told her to cancel the upgrade, leave everything as it is. It seemed like she understood me. She asked me if I was happy with the call, and I said "Not really", to which she said "I understand".
Evidently she did not.
Because I got into work this morning and found an email from Dodo explaining that they were upgrading my account with increased download limits in March.
Now I think Indians are generally pretty smart people. They seem to make fine doctors and engineers. Not so much with the call centre jobs though. I presume it is because of the "English as a second language" thing. All I know is that I feel like I'm talking to a child when I try and explain myself to them. I was saying today that because they work on standard scripted answers, it's like talking to a computer, not a person, if you don't ask the right question, phrased the right way, they don't know how to deal with it. The whole time I was on the phone (including all of the breaks to "go talk with a supervisor") I couldn't help but think if I could talk to an Aussie in an Adelaide call centre I'd have the whole thing sorted in two minutes.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Dreams
I have some weird dreams sometimes. One that I have as a recurring one is being chased, actually more being hunted down. These dreams seem to last several hours, and often end up with me hiding out in a warehouse somewhere. I have no idea what, if anything, that means.
Last night I had one of these dreams, but with a twist - I was getting chased by Lee Harvey Oswald.
This is unusual on a few levels. First of all, Oswald is dead. Also, you wouldn't think he was suited to a chase situation, since he was apprehended like five minutes after the assassination, so probably isn't that good at running. Finally, he's a historical figure - what kind of a nerd dreams about men from history?
Anyway, the dream began innocently enough with Oswald sitting outside of a barber shop, handcuffs around his feet and his wrists. I assume my dream was set in 1963 because for some reason I knew he had just been arrested for shooting JFK. Anyway, I was sitting across from him, generally making fun of him for getting caught so quickly and easily. He took my insults for a while, his head hung low. I looked away, then looked back and noticed he was smiling at me. I looked down and saw he had somehow removed the chains around his feet and hands, and was ready to go.
And thus the chase begun. It felt like he pursued me for several hours, although I suppose in reality it was probably only a minute or two. Once I felt like I couldn't run anymore I managed to call the thing off by waking myself up.
Hopefully this will be a once-off type of thing, because I really hope I don't have to outrun John Wilkes Booth tonight, I just don't have the energy.
Last night I had one of these dreams, but with a twist - I was getting chased by Lee Harvey Oswald.
This is unusual on a few levels. First of all, Oswald is dead. Also, you wouldn't think he was suited to a chase situation, since he was apprehended like five minutes after the assassination, so probably isn't that good at running. Finally, he's a historical figure - what kind of a nerd dreams about men from history?
Anyway, the dream began innocently enough with Oswald sitting outside of a barber shop, handcuffs around his feet and his wrists. I assume my dream was set in 1963 because for some reason I knew he had just been arrested for shooting JFK. Anyway, I was sitting across from him, generally making fun of him for getting caught so quickly and easily. He took my insults for a while, his head hung low. I looked away, then looked back and noticed he was smiling at me. I looked down and saw he had somehow removed the chains around his feet and hands, and was ready to go.
And thus the chase begun. It felt like he pursued me for several hours, although I suppose in reality it was probably only a minute or two. Once I felt like I couldn't run anymore I managed to call the thing off by waking myself up.
Hopefully this will be a once-off type of thing, because I really hope I don't have to outrun John Wilkes Booth tonight, I just don't have the energy.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Monday, February 18, 2008
Home Improvement
I spent most of the weekend doing handyman work around the house. It was a rather frustrating experience.
For example, in my experience, nothing ever goes right for me (in handyman terms, that is). I had to put a new doorhandle (which I bought three years ago) on a door, and after digging it out from my shed, realised I had lost a key part of it. I spent about half an hour looking around the shed, to no avail, so went to the hardware store. Since they only had one size of this particular part at Mitre 10, I assumed it was a one size fits all kind of thing. I was wrong. I got the part home and realised that I must have non-standard doorknobs, and my new standard part didn't fit. So I had to use my trusty angle grinder to grind it down to the correct size. Half an hour later it was done, and a job that should have taken me an hour to complete (ie one a qualified tradesmen would have finished in 15 minutes) took me an entire morning.
This scenario was repeated several times on Saturday and Sunday. And I realised that being a handyman isn't in my blood. I can usually complete most tasks, but not quickly, and certainly not well.
I can't wait to move . . .
For example, in my experience, nothing ever goes right for me (in handyman terms, that is). I had to put a new doorhandle (which I bought three years ago) on a door, and after digging it out from my shed, realised I had lost a key part of it. I spent about half an hour looking around the shed, to no avail, so went to the hardware store. Since they only had one size of this particular part at Mitre 10, I assumed it was a one size fits all kind of thing. I was wrong. I got the part home and realised that I must have non-standard doorknobs, and my new standard part didn't fit. So I had to use my trusty angle grinder to grind it down to the correct size. Half an hour later it was done, and a job that should have taken me an hour to complete (ie one a qualified tradesmen would have finished in 15 minutes) took me an entire morning.
This scenario was repeated several times on Saturday and Sunday. And I realised that being a handyman isn't in my blood. I can usually complete most tasks, but not quickly, and certainly not well.
I can't wait to move . . .
Friday, February 15, 2008
We lost in the finals!
Well, we forfeited anyway. Jess and Wheelie had to woo their women, and Ash had to go to Sydney for work leaving us with four players, and ending our season.
It's unlikely we would have won (see previous post detailing our fantastic win/loss record for 2007/08) but it would have been nice to at least give it a go.
I'm not sure where this leaves us. I suspect our team has played its last game together, I think I'm ready for some time off at least. As you get older everyone starts to go their separate ways with wives, kids, careers and it gets harder and harder to get a full team each week (although having none of those three things, I'm usually pretty reliable).
Now all we're left with is the memories . . . Boris getting suspended for a season and then having to move the team to Port Adelaide to get around this, losing every year to Jarrad until we conviced him to join our team, the season Mike played for us and never learned how to do a lay-up, the Jamie era, Jimbo filling in and trashtalking to Jarrad, and Jarrad responding by kicking our butts, sharing a single jug of complimentary beer and a pizza after each grand final appearance (regardless of whether it was a win or a loss), winning in the finals, then within a year losing 90% of our regular season games . . . ahh, so many memories.
It's unlikely we would have won (see previous post detailing our fantastic win/loss record for 2007/08) but it would have been nice to at least give it a go.
I'm not sure where this leaves us. I suspect our team has played its last game together, I think I'm ready for some time off at least. As you get older everyone starts to go their separate ways with wives, kids, careers and it gets harder and harder to get a full team each week (although having none of those three things, I'm usually pretty reliable).
Now all we're left with is the memories . . . Boris getting suspended for a season and then having to move the team to Port Adelaide to get around this, losing every year to Jarrad until we conviced him to join our team, the season Mike played for us and never learned how to do a lay-up, the Jamie era, Jimbo filling in and trashtalking to Jarrad, and Jarrad responding by kicking our butts, sharing a single jug of complimentary beer and a pizza after each grand final appearance (regardless of whether it was a win or a loss), winning in the finals, then within a year losing 90% of our regular season games . . . ahh, so many memories.
Valentine's Day
Being the romantic guy I am, I chose to celebrate Valentines Day yesterday by spending the night alone and indulging in a mindless action movie, called approproiately enough, "Shoot 'Em Up".
I can't compete with the plot recap posted on wikipedia, so I won't try . . .
The film follows Smith (Clive Owen), a down-and-out squatter with both an extensive military background and a fondness for carrots, who wants nothing more than to be left alone. Smith finds himself embroiled in a complex political conspiracy once he aids a pregnant woman who is being chased by a hitman. He takes the baby and goes on the run with a lactating prostitute (Monica Belluci). The unlikely family is trailed by the intelligent and ruthless Hertz (Paul Giamatti) and his army of thugs. A myriad of elaborate gunfights ensue, between which Smith pieces together the plot. A United States Senator who strongly supported gun control had been breeding babies for bone marrow to cure his cancer; a prominent gun manufacturer contracted Hertz to kill the babies, effectively killing the Senator. In the end, Smith, the prostitute, and the baby survive.
Yep, that's right. "Fondness for carrots", and "lactating prostitute" - not exactly mainstays of your typical action movie. It was good though, despite (or perhaps because of) the fact it was basically a 90 minute long gunfight. I quite liked Clive Owen in this, and even that annoying wine guy from "Sideways" was quite good. If you've got a night to yourself, or your loved one isn't averse to copious amounts of blood, you could do a lot worse than this for a quiet night in.
I can't compete with the plot recap posted on wikipedia, so I won't try . . .
The film follows Smith (Clive Owen), a down-and-out squatter with both an extensive military background and a fondness for carrots, who wants nothing more than to be left alone. Smith finds himself embroiled in a complex political conspiracy once he aids a pregnant woman who is being chased by a hitman. He takes the baby and goes on the run with a lactating prostitute (Monica Belluci). The unlikely family is trailed by the intelligent and ruthless Hertz (Paul Giamatti) and his army of thugs. A myriad of elaborate gunfights ensue, between which Smith pieces together the plot. A United States Senator who strongly supported gun control had been breeding babies for bone marrow to cure his cancer; a prominent gun manufacturer contracted Hertz to kill the babies, effectively killing the Senator. In the end, Smith, the prostitute, and the baby survive.
Yep, that's right. "Fondness for carrots", and "lactating prostitute" - not exactly mainstays of your typical action movie. It was good though, despite (or perhaps because of) the fact it was basically a 90 minute long gunfight. I quite liked Clive Owen in this, and even that annoying wine guy from "Sideways" was quite good. If you've got a night to yourself, or your loved one isn't averse to copious amounts of blood, you could do a lot worse than this for a quiet night in.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
For sale: One brothel
Found out this week that our neighbourhood brothel (or so I'm told) is for sale. I always wondered what it looked like inside one of these places, and now I know. Although I have to say, just looking at that bathroom makes me feel ill . . .
As Corey pointed out, the key to the previous owners is in the first line of the descriptive text . . . "Unique 2 Storey Residence That Can Be Utilised For Various Purposes. In Need Of Urgent Sale - Vendor Relocating Interstate" . . . Corey said replace "various purposes" for "pimping" and it all makes sense.
I'm really enjoying the latest season of The Biggest Loser. Shannan is undoubtably the highlight, he's what Steve Irwin would have been like if he went into body building instead of crocodile hunting. There are many other characters which grab your interest to though, both good (Cosi from SA) and bad (Racheal the lazy punk lesbian).
I've been listening a lot to the Juno soundtrack lately, and have decided I really like it. Totally different from the stuff I'd normally listen to, most of the songs are pretty folkish and a bit child-like. It's quite good though, and fits in perfectly with the movie (which I also recommend).
Finally, there's a lolly shop in the city that sells Jelly Bellys by the flavour, and I've become quite a fan - I especially recommend the peanut butter ones.
As Corey pointed out, the key to the previous owners is in the first line of the descriptive text . . . "Unique 2 Storey Residence That Can Be Utilised For Various Purposes. In Need Of Urgent Sale - Vendor Relocating Interstate" . . . Corey said replace "various purposes" for "pimping" and it all makes sense.
I'm really enjoying the latest season of The Biggest Loser. Shannan is undoubtably the highlight, he's what Steve Irwin would have been like if he went into body building instead of crocodile hunting. There are many other characters which grab your interest to though, both good (Cosi from SA) and bad (Racheal the lazy punk lesbian).
I've been listening a lot to the Juno soundtrack lately, and have decided I really like it. Totally different from the stuff I'd normally listen to, most of the songs are pretty folkish and a bit child-like. It's quite good though, and fits in perfectly with the movie (which I also recommend).
Finally, there's a lolly shop in the city that sells Jelly Bellys by the flavour, and I've become quite a fan - I especially recommend the peanut butter ones.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Notes on a Scandal
Caught this on DVD on the weekend. I think it's safe to say that any time you have a movie starring Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett, it probably wasn't my choice. However, I can't lie, I did really enjoy this.
(Spoiler alert)
The plot is as follows . . . Cate plays a new art teacher at an English school, and Judi the older teacher who befriends her. Right from the start Judi seems a little creepy and needy, and as the movie progresses she gets more so. When she finds out Cate is having an affair with one of her 15 year old students, she takes the opportunity to manipulate the situation and separate her from her husband and family, and have her move into her house. Eventually Cate realises Judi is psycho, they have a fights and Cate moves out, and the film ends with Judi chatting up a new woman.
The one thing I found weird was it felt like the movie was building to some act of violence the whole time, but it never happened, it was a little unusual. Although maybe that was all by design. It kind of reminded me of the movie "Match Point", which had a similar sort of feel, but ended with an inexplicable amount of bloodshed, certainly in comparison to what the rest of the movie would have you expect.
Anyway, this was a pretty good film. Definitely kept my attention, although seeing as you pretty much know everything that's going to happen, it may not do the same for you.
(Spoiler alert)
The plot is as follows . . . Cate plays a new art teacher at an English school, and Judi the older teacher who befriends her. Right from the start Judi seems a little creepy and needy, and as the movie progresses she gets more so. When she finds out Cate is having an affair with one of her 15 year old students, she takes the opportunity to manipulate the situation and separate her from her husband and family, and have her move into her house. Eventually Cate realises Judi is psycho, they have a fights and Cate moves out, and the film ends with Judi chatting up a new woman.
The one thing I found weird was it felt like the movie was building to some act of violence the whole time, but it never happened, it was a little unusual. Although maybe that was all by design. It kind of reminded me of the movie "Match Point", which had a similar sort of feel, but ended with an inexplicable amount of bloodshed, certainly in comparison to what the rest of the movie would have you expect.
Anyway, this was a pretty good film. Definitely kept my attention, although seeing as you pretty much know everything that's going to happen, it may not do the same for you.
Monday, February 11, 2008
We're in the finals!
So this year my basketball team won one game, drew in another, and lost the remaining twelve. Naturally then I was a little surprised to find out today that we're in the finals, starting this week. Not exactly sure how that happened, but I assume it involved a combination of forfeits by the opposition, losses that became wins because the other teams played unregistered players, and teams dropping out.
So we apparently ended up ranked 4th on the ladder, despite the fact that we lost more than 80% of our games.
Our reward is that we get to play the top ranked team this week in the first round, just to prolong our worst season ever a little bit more.
Our chances probably aren't great, even more so since we will be missing two key players, with Wheelie and Jesse having Valentines Day committments. A special Doug Christie jersey is in the post for both of them. You don't see me missing finals games. The fact that my girlfriend is in Queensland this week is irrelevant. Disappointing.
Anyway, I guess we could win, stranger things have happened . . . check back Friday to find out . . .
So we apparently ended up ranked 4th on the ladder, despite the fact that we lost more than 80% of our games.
Our reward is that we get to play the top ranked team this week in the first round, just to prolong our worst season ever a little bit more.
Our chances probably aren't great, even more so since we will be missing two key players, with Wheelie and Jesse having Valentines Day committments. A special Doug Christie jersey is in the post for both of them. You don't see me missing finals games. The fact that my girlfriend is in Queensland this week is irrelevant. Disappointing.
Anyway, I guess we could win, stranger things have happened . . . check back Friday to find out . . .
Thursday, February 07, 2008
Shooter
I'd been meaning to watch this for a while, and finally got around to grabbing it Monday night. If you like watching guys get shot with sniper rifles, and people being blown up, I highly recommend.
Mark Wahlberg plays a retired army guy who was left for dead by his Army superiors in an operation gone wrong. He returns to America (alive obviously) and lives a life of solace in a log cabin in the woods. Until some Government guy (played by Danny Glover) visits him one day, and tells him they need him to help them foil an assassination attempt on the President. Except, being the Government, they are all corrupt, and they end up setting him up as an assassin, and the rest of the movie is Marky Mark getting revenge on all the guys who tried to screw with him.
I thought for what it was the movie was really well done, lots of great action scenes, and Wahlberg continues his stretch of awesome movies (Boogie Nights, The Departed, Four Brothers, Three Kings, The Italian Job).
Rating: Somewhere between four stars and two thumbs up.
Mark Wahlberg plays a retired army guy who was left for dead by his Army superiors in an operation gone wrong. He returns to America (alive obviously) and lives a life of solace in a log cabin in the woods. Until some Government guy (played by Danny Glover) visits him one day, and tells him they need him to help them foil an assassination attempt on the President. Except, being the Government, they are all corrupt, and they end up setting him up as an assassin, and the rest of the movie is Marky Mark getting revenge on all the guys who tried to screw with him.
I thought for what it was the movie was really well done, lots of great action scenes, and Wahlberg continues his stretch of awesome movies (Boogie Nights, The Departed, Four Brothers, Three Kings, The Italian Job).
Rating: Somewhere between four stars and two thumbs up.
Monday, February 04, 2008
Big Day Out 2008
Last Friday Muzz and I went to the Big Day Out. For me it was possibly the last time, like any old timer will tell you, music is getting worse, and this is reflected in the lineup. How could I pass up the opportunity to see a reformed Rage Against The Machine though? I couldn't, so I made it to Wayville one last time . . .
We got there around 1pm, and looked for a park in the side streets off Goodwood Road. I knew we'd have to walk a bit, but that wasn't the problem - this year the council had made every single carpark within about a 2km radius of the showgrounds a 2 hour zone. I suppose it's fair, you wouldn't want all the rich people in Goodwood to have strangers parking outside their house for one day in January each year.
We ended up parking a way away at Forrestvile and so were a bit late, and missed the start of Gyroscope's set. They were playing on one of the side stages at 1.30pm and someone must have severely underestimated their popularity, because the place was packed. We eventually got in a position where we could see OK but the sound wasn't the best. And they mainly seemed to play songs from either their really early albums, or their latest album, none of which are as good as the stuff from "Are You Involved"? They were OK, but nothing close to how good they were when we saw them a few months back at Fowlers.
After they finished playing we realised he didn't have anyone we wanted to see for the next six or seven hours, so went to the bar. We had a couple of beers, and laughed at a middle aged security guard who was fighting a losing battle, trying to stop people entering via the exit. I thought he was going to break down in tears at one point. Still, pretty amazing that people don't even listen to security guards these days.
After a while we got a call from Corey, and headed out to the main oval to watch the bands. The Hilltop Hoods were OK, better than I expected, although that might just be in comparison to everyone else. It was pretty funny watching thousands of white people trying to dance like they were black.
We went and got some food, then hung out at a bar some more. After this we headed back to the main arena to try and get in to the D-section up front well in time for Rage.
We got in during the Arcade Fire's set, which was actually a bit of a drag as it meant we had to listen to them play. I counted ten musicians on stage, and yet they still struggled to make something you would describe as "music". Then silverchair were next, and sucked it up real good too. Not only was their music boring, but Daniel Johns just comes across as completely full of himself. He also took the time out to tell us that he wasn't gay, not that anyone actually asked.
Speaking of people who are gay, during Bjork's set Corey started chatting to one of the crowd members, and the guy took the opportunity to try and pick Cors up. He was quite persistent, was good for a laugh, and to distract us from the horrible sounds Bjork was making a few hundred metres away. If you can imagine a musical equivalent of fingernails on a blackboard, that's what it sounded like. It was so bad I actually started to reminisice about silverchair.
So basically that takes us to about 8.45pm, at which point it was officially the worst BDO I'd ever been too. I mean, I knew the lineup was thin going in, but I wasn't ready for it to be this bad.
None of that really mattered when Rage finally took the stage though. From the moment they started with "Testify", they were simply amazing. I think they actually sound better live that on record. You kind of take the sounds that Tom Morello pulls out of a guitar for granted, until you actually see him pull in off live, while stomping across the stage. For four guys they have a huge sound, and it's completely their own - noone else comes close to sounding like they do.
Highlights were Wake Up, Bulls on Parade, Know Your Enemy, Vietnow, and Guerilla Radio. Yep, that's about half their set, they were that good.
They finished at 10.15pm or so, and thanks to the council and their awesome carparking regulations, and music fans who walk about 3km/hour, we got back to the car at 11pm. It was great to see RATM at least once, but I don't think I'll be back to the Big Day Out. Consider me retired.
We got there around 1pm, and looked for a park in the side streets off Goodwood Road. I knew we'd have to walk a bit, but that wasn't the problem - this year the council had made every single carpark within about a 2km radius of the showgrounds a 2 hour zone. I suppose it's fair, you wouldn't want all the rich people in Goodwood to have strangers parking outside their house for one day in January each year.
We ended up parking a way away at Forrestvile and so were a bit late, and missed the start of Gyroscope's set. They were playing on one of the side stages at 1.30pm and someone must have severely underestimated their popularity, because the place was packed. We eventually got in a position where we could see OK but the sound wasn't the best. And they mainly seemed to play songs from either their really early albums, or their latest album, none of which are as good as the stuff from "Are You Involved"? They were OK, but nothing close to how good they were when we saw them a few months back at Fowlers.
After they finished playing we realised he didn't have anyone we wanted to see for the next six or seven hours, so went to the bar. We had a couple of beers, and laughed at a middle aged security guard who was fighting a losing battle, trying to stop people entering via the exit. I thought he was going to break down in tears at one point. Still, pretty amazing that people don't even listen to security guards these days.
After a while we got a call from Corey, and headed out to the main oval to watch the bands. The Hilltop Hoods were OK, better than I expected, although that might just be in comparison to everyone else. It was pretty funny watching thousands of white people trying to dance like they were black.
We went and got some food, then hung out at a bar some more. After this we headed back to the main arena to try and get in to the D-section up front well in time for Rage.
We got in during the Arcade Fire's set, which was actually a bit of a drag as it meant we had to listen to them play. I counted ten musicians on stage, and yet they still struggled to make something you would describe as "music". Then silverchair were next, and sucked it up real good too. Not only was their music boring, but Daniel Johns just comes across as completely full of himself. He also took the time out to tell us that he wasn't gay, not that anyone actually asked.
Speaking of people who are gay, during Bjork's set Corey started chatting to one of the crowd members, and the guy took the opportunity to try and pick Cors up. He was quite persistent, was good for a laugh, and to distract us from the horrible sounds Bjork was making a few hundred metres away. If you can imagine a musical equivalent of fingernails on a blackboard, that's what it sounded like. It was so bad I actually started to reminisice about silverchair.
So basically that takes us to about 8.45pm, at which point it was officially the worst BDO I'd ever been too. I mean, I knew the lineup was thin going in, but I wasn't ready for it to be this bad.
None of that really mattered when Rage finally took the stage though. From the moment they started with "Testify", they were simply amazing. I think they actually sound better live that on record. You kind of take the sounds that Tom Morello pulls out of a guitar for granted, until you actually see him pull in off live, while stomping across the stage. For four guys they have a huge sound, and it's completely their own - noone else comes close to sounding like they do.
Highlights were Wake Up, Bulls on Parade, Know Your Enemy, Vietnow, and Guerilla Radio. Yep, that's about half their set, they were that good.
They finished at 10.15pm or so, and thanks to the council and their awesome carparking regulations, and music fans who walk about 3km/hour, we got back to the car at 11pm. It was great to see RATM at least once, but I don't think I'll be back to the Big Day Out. Consider me retired.
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