Things I like and things I don't

Things I'm liking

Roasted almonds

Infinitely better than regular almonds. And I'm led to believe they are healthy, or sort of at least. I've been enjoying these as a mid afternoon snack at work, when I start to get the urge to visit the charity chocolate boxes in the kitchen.

My Name is Earl


They are showing repeats of this on the Comedy Channel every night at 7pm. It's not the best show by any means, but thanks to the efforts of Jason Lee in the titular role, it's not bad. With pretty much nothing on TV now, this is becoming a part of my weeknight rotation, right before I head to the gym at 7.30pm, avoiding nightly knuckledheaded bodybuilder hour.

Having a beard

The aesthetic appeal is certainly arguable, but you can't argue with sleeping in an extra five minutes every day.

Corey's new blog

One of my closest friends, Corey Devlin, aka F'ing Corey (pictured below), now has his own blog. You can check it out here: http://myfisho.blogspot.com/. I have high expectations for this blog, and am especially impressed that he's started posting from work as of today. I can't help but think that there is still room on the blogging bandwagon for a few more though. Penglis - would it kill you to give us some insights into life with the Poms? Ribar, I'm sure you've got some great stories you could share that won't get you fired? If I told you you could even do it while you're at work, is that something you might be interested in?

Anyway with new bloggers like Cors popping up I'm going to have step up my game, expect Simmons-esque posts from now on a regular basis (length-wise, not quality-wise).

"9 Crimes" filmclip by Damien Rice



I didn't check this out until Ribar put me onto it a few days ago - to be honest it's a bit weird, the whole thing with Lisa's head as a balloon. But Damien Rice is a genius so I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt. I realise there are more important things going on in the world, but it makes me sad that this remains unheard and unseen by 99% of the population, with the garbage out there that sells millions of copies. If you can listen to this without getting chills you're a harder person than I.

"Easy Tiger" by Ryan Adams

This album is starting to grow on me - there's still a few too many full on country songs, but it's definitely his best since "Cold Roses". And just in time too, since I'll be seeing him in a month from now.

Complex magazine

It's kind of expensive, and a little bit gangsta, but I like reading this. Half of each issue is pop culture - movies, music, TV etc, and then the other half (bound upside down behind a second cover) is a kind of buyers guide - collectable sneakers, watches, stuff likes that. Lots of completely unnecessary items, but it soothes my inner-materialist. The current issue features a joint cover with the star of the best movie of the year - Seth Rogen - and the man behind the greatest rap album ever - RZA. How can you go wrong?

Rap music

I'll admit that 95% of it sucks, I won't even debate that. But for every 19 pieces of crap, there's one piece of gold*.

So, if you only listen to ten hip hop songs in your life, make it these ten**.

1. 100 Miles and Running - NWA
2. Jesus Walks - Kanye West
3. Get By - Talib Kweli
4. Protect Ya Neck - Wu Tang Clan ***



5. Hit 'Em Up - Tupac ****
6. Today Was a Good Day - Ice Cube
7. Don't Sweat the Technique - Eric B and Rakim
8. Rock Superstar - Cypress Hill
9. Get the F... Outta Dodge - Public Enemy
10. Ante Up - M.O.P

*Not an exact mathematical formula.
** If you're offended by bad language, objectification of women, and random death threats, best to steer clear of songs 1, 5, 6, 9 and 10. Especially 5 which manages to score the trifecta.
*** Actually the entire first album - "Enter the Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers" - is fantastic, and still sounds fresh and unique 14 years after it was released. For some reason - maybe the 95% philosophy outlined above - there are very few great hip hop albums - most have one or two good songs and a lot of filler. This is the exception. This group were also part of one of my all-time favourite moments on "The Larry Sanders Show", when they were booked to appear on the show, and a horrified Hank, after looking through the CD booklet exclaimed "They look like car jackers!"
**** I've mentioned this to friends before, but I find this song amazing as it probably led to the murder of its author, which doesn't happen real often, and makes me feel a little uneasy about including it on the above list. On the other hand it's hell catchy.

Sports on the world wide interweb

Just quickly, if you're looking for a good NBA podcast, you should subscribe to "The Basketball Jones" - you can get it here: http://www.thebasketballjones.net/, or through iTunes. And one sportswriter/blogger I'd recommend is MJD who writes a daily column here: http://sports.aol.com/fanhouse/tag/TheDebriefing/.

Things that kind of suck

Remixes of popular songs

I was shopping in an exclusive boutique today (OK, fine, it was Cotton On, are you happy now?) when I heard a remix of the 80's song "Africa" by Toto. Now this song has a special place in my heart, but the remix was horrible. Why do we need a techno "Africa"? What purpose does this serve? I remember a couple of years ago when Forcey was annoyed with some stupid remix of "Boys of Summer". At the time I couldn't really care less, but now I think I understand how he felt. Anyway I'm sure I'm not alone here - I overheard a Mum telling her young child "It's OK, just cover your ears for the next few minutes." She was probably talking about the volume of the music, but I like to think she was talking about the song itself. Kid's don't need to be hearing that stuff.



Personal websites other than blogspot

Blogspot has already established itself as the site of choice for some of Adelaide's most exciting new bloggers, such as myself, Mirjana and Corey. Still there are some people who think they know better, and are using other, inferior sites.

Gav (http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=101554496) - like Forcey once said, Myspace is just one step away from being a dating site. Plus it's ridiculous - millions of people putting up a couple of pictures, and a list of their favourite bands, with hundreds of "friends" with names like "psychokiller666" leaving messages like "stopped by your site to say hello", "you rock", "had a sick time Friday night" and other inane nonsense.

Paul (http://www.tagworld.com/forcey) - I know you're committed to team Tagworld, but if you were to make the change to blogspot, you would still be able to keep your video clips, my eyes wouldn't hurt so much, and my computer would crash less often.

The Police at Football Park

I was surprised to hear that they are booked to play Footy Park, and I'm not sure how they'll go filling the place. It seems to me that most bands that play Football Park are a) legendary bands with 20 years or more of sustained popularity (eg U2), or b) lowest common demoninator rubbish that the chicks love (eg Robbie Williams). I'm sure the Police were huge in their time (I think they broke up when I was like 8 years old), and they still get played a lot on Mix FM, but I don't see 50,000 Adelaide residents shelling out $100-$250 to go to this. Maybe I'm wrong though. Hopefully Sting comes to his senses and leave Kanye behind at least.

Guys at my gym who don't know how to park . . .

And think they can park in areas that are clearly designated thoroughfares. Perhaps 90% of the time these cars are either Commodores or Skylines, so yeah, you come to your own conclusions.

The Chinese Government

A few of my regular readers would be aware of this story, and in terms of stories about the Chinese Government, it's more humourous than shocking. Anyway, news surfaced this week that the Chinese Government had issued a statement saying it was displeased with Yao Ming, the star of their national basketball team and starting centre with the Houston Rockets. His crime - apparently he had not returned fast enough to China to train with the National team after the completion of the NBA season, because he was planning his wedding, and spending time promoting the upcoming Special Olympics, and 2008 Olympics, which are to be held in . . . Beijing! In their own country! This is ridiculous enough on its own, but the comments from the Government were particularly ludicous (and a litle bit chilling):


"No matter how lofty public welfare activities are, they can't be allowed to take first place in a player's life," the China Sports Daily, a federation-owned newspaper, said in an article appearing Tuesday.

"No matter how sweet personal life is, it can't be compared to the exultation of capturing glory for one's nation," the article said.

Sure it's not on the same level as running down students in Tienamen Square or enslaving an entire country, but it shows you that China is still a pretty Orwellian type of place to live, and makes you appreciate the lives we live in Australia.

New shoes

Last night I ran 45 minutes on the treadmill at the gym. Then came home to find my toes had started to blister. I'm not entirely sure if this is because I was trying to run in Air Force Ones, but figured it was time to invest in a pair of running shoes anyway.

So I headed off to A-Mart Sports at lunch time today. The things I was looking for in my new running shoe were:

1) Something that fits (obviously)
2) Something that looks good
3) Something produced by a known and reputable company
4) Something that costs less than $100
5) Something that was worth considerably more than $100


It took me about five minutes of looking, but I think I found something that fulfils all of these criteria - I picked up these Adidas marked down 50% to $80. It's times like this that I'm glad that I'm a guy and I can knock off tasks like this in a quarter of an hour.

The National - Boxer

It was a review in Rolling Stone that turned me on to this album - it described The National as a cross between Leonard Cohen and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. I'm often a little wary of these things - I'm thinking of the time I got suckered into watching "The Machinist" because of the "Memento meets Fight Club" quote on the front cover of the DVD - but this did grab my attention. I downloaded the album later that night and have been listening to it for the last week or so.

I can't really argue with the Leonard Cohen and Nick Cave comparisons - this is dark music, sung in a deep baritone. But the band they remind me of more are Interpol, if Interpol gave up their electric guitars. There's a bit of a Murder by Death feel too - the instrumentation is largely acoustic, with guitar, bass and drums accentuated with strings, piano and even brass. The other band that they remind me of a little are Radiohead, in terms of some of the rhythms. So if you're looking for something that sounds like Leonard Cohen meets Nick Cave meets Interpol meets Murder by Death meets Radiohead, you could do a lot worse than this.

Below is a clip from the album, this is their song Mistaken for Strangers (in typical fashion, even though it's their single it's not even close to being the best song on the album).

Global domination

Friday night I played Risk with Alen, Jessie and Amanda.

I'm not really sure why, but for some reason I turn into a bit of a jerk when playing board games. Sometimes this manifests itself in cheating, other times I just get a little cocky. Friday night was the latter - I had managed to slip under the radar for most of the game, and conquered half the board a few hours in. Before my final turn though I turned over my mission card to show everyone what I was going to do (conquer North America and Australia), and in the process point out there wasn't a thing they could do about it.

This really is an anomoly in my life - when I'm playing basketball I don't predict making a big shot before I do it. I try and stay clear of making bold predictions at work too. I think it might come from childhood somewhere - board games were a big part of our family culture, and with three competitive siblings, these games got serious. Maybe there's a support group for guys like me, although I'd imagine it would be pretty geeky.

Now for a Chaser-esque segue . . . speaking of global conflict, I finally got around to watching "Blood Diamond" last night. Brilliant movie. Great story, great cinematography, and Leo doing his best work since "Growing Pains". Actually I think I might be coming around on him - with this and "The Departed" in the last year he's made some good choices, and doesn't seem like the nancy-boy he used to so much any more. Anyway back to the movie - the scene towards the end where the army bombs a diamond mining field was the highlight - very "Apocalyspse Now"-esque. Jennifer Connelly was stunning too - very underrated if you ask me. Best DVD I've hired in a long time.

The Barossa

I spent the last few days in the Barossa for work, with a bunch of colleagues - somewhere between a team building exercise and an educational trip. Normally I'm not real keen on these things, but I quite enjoyed the experience this time. A few of the highlights were:

Visiting a lavender farm, and not seeing the sign that said "Please do not throw sticks to the dog. He will encourage you". So while the farm manager was giving everyone a lecture on lavender (which I'm sure was scintillating), I amused myself throwing a stick to the dog (who, like the sign said, did encourage me to do so), until I was told off. Turns out the dog is half blind, and has a habit of running into trees and that while playing fetch.

The food here was interesting too - we started with the traditional scones with jam and cream, but then they started bringing out platters of lavender-infused food - lavender ice cream, lavender chocolate mousse, lavender cupcakes etc. Not really sure how I felt about that.

Although the novelty of getting free food and drink everywhere we went shouldn't be underestimated - a definite plus.

Doing the "Make Your Own Blend" tour at Penfolds, and having the host tell us she could taste a range of things, including "Christmas lollies" in the wine we were sampling. This was a source of great amusement to Matt and I for the next twenty minutes, as we worked on creating our own wines, interspersed with comment like "needs more Allen's Party Mix" or "You can really taste the M&Ms in this one". Also got to wear funny white coats which made you feel like a doctor.

Visiting the Barossa Brewing Company in Greenock, and sampling their beers. I came away with a six pack of their dark ale, according to the brewer it will improve with age and peak in eighteen months or so. It remains to be seen whether it will last past this coming weekend.

The low points included:

Playing golf - I'm not sure why I suck at this sport so much, but I do. Not to get all sexist because that's not my style, but I was worse than almost everyone else there - and about 80% of our group were female. I'm not a world class athlete - or any kind of athlete at all - but I like to think that if you took a random sampling of girls off the street, I'd be better at sport on average than them. Perhaps. But golf I'm just terrible at. To make myself feel better though I'm going to fall back on my previously expressed sentiments that it's not a sport at all - it's a game. Anything you can be amongst the best in the world at and still be eligible to receive a pensioner's discount, isn't a sport.

Sharing a room - I got to share a two bedroom apartment with a colleague, which was fine. Except for some inexplicable reason, he brought his daughter's boyfriend along with him on the trip. (Actually there was a reason - they were going camping together after the trip, and something about a broken down car - it just wasn't a very good one). At the end of the day you just want to get back to your room and chill on your own - not hang out with someone you barely know. Jarrod - or the J-Train as we dubbed him - was quite a character though, constantly hiding behind his sunglasses, even inside dim wineries. Just the ridiculousness of him tagging along everywhere was good for a laugh, so I can't really complain.

Poker . . .

Did a little better tonight, although didn't actually win a hand . . .

Made it through to the final 20 - with half my chips left and the blinds climbing quickly had to go all in on King - Eight suited, and with 3 callers, lost to a pair of Aces.

Ando wasn't so lucky - several minutes before I went all in he went all in on big slick, only to have a caller with Ace-Five hit a five on the turn.

Live Earth

Over the past few days I've caught bits and pieces of the Live Earth series of concerts that were held on the weekend. Some of it was surprisingly good, and some of it not.

Probably my favourite performance was a duet between Keith Urban and Alicia Keys. I know, I'm just as surprised as you are. It helped that they were covering my favourite Stones song "Gimme Shelter", but they did a great job - Alicia handling the high female vocal really well, and Mr Kidman knocking out a few decent guitar solos. I'm actually giving some thought to checking out his music after this - as I get older, I find I'm listening to more country-ish stuff, like Ryan Adams or Neko Case. It's not that much of a leap to jump right into this.



Worst performance I saw were The Smashing Pumpkins. It pains me to say this, because for years they were my favourite band, but Billy, you need to give up. You had some good songs back in the 90s, but it's over. I couldn't help but cringe as he warbled his way through "Bullet with Butterfly Wings". "Today" was slightly better, but not much - he just really struggles with the singing side of things.



Weirdest moment was probably The Police. Perhaps I should have seen it coming, since in recent years Sting has done duets with guys like Craig David and Puff Daddy. So it shouldn't have been such a huge shock to see John Mayer join them on stage for "Message in a Bottle". I don't have anything against John. He seems like a pretty funny guy, from what I've seen of him on "Chappelle's Show". Not so good at music really, and I'd subtract some respect for the whole Jessica Simpson thing, but he came to his senses there. But I don't see how he's earned the right to get on stage with The Police at an event like this. It got worse though. Halfway through the song they brought out Kanye West to rap along. At this point I was thinking maybe Sting lost a bet or something backstage. As far as rappers go I like Kanye but this was just embarrasing. Perhaps the only time you'll ever hear the words "Al Gore" in a rap song.



A few other thoughts . . . I forgot Dave Grohl in my list of cool guys with a beard from yesterday - he gets extra points for remaining cool even though his band has been getting progressively worse since their second album. Madonna played a new song and it was truly horrible. It was great seeing Neil Finn take a step away from the microphone during Crowded House's set and have the crowd carry on singing. Linkin Park seemed to have no connection to the cause whatsoever, the kids in Japan seemed to like it though.

Quick thoughts on a Monday

Growing a beard

It was born out of laziness. A couple of days without shaving led to a few more, and next thing I know I've got a beard. I'm starting to get used to it, and think I might keep it around for a while. Making it work could be tough. By my count, there aren't a whole lot of cool guys rocking the beard, other than perhaps:

Jesus


Eddie Vedder


Jason Lee


Still, I'm going to give it a go. It's kind of a project, and since I have a bit more time on my hands these days, I'm big on projects. This one seems ideal since I don't really have to do anything. Plus I'll be ready to go come Movember 2007.

School Holidays

I'm sure for many people - like my friend Wheelie - this is a wonderful time of the year. For me it is a very frustrating two weeks. Walking around town is difficult because of all the little kiddies everywhere - I have to watch where I'm walking, and I don't like watching where I'm walking. Then there are the teenagers, who spend their days loitering in the mall. We used to call it "hanging out" in my day. Now they congregate in large groups in the most inconvenient places - like the entrances to popular shops. Sometimes if they are particularly pale in complexion with horribly dyed hair, they'll sit on the ground outside these shops. What the hell is up with that? In my day I never gathered up a bunch of friends, and said "Hey let's go into town and sit on the ground outside Borders". I don't understand people sometimes.

Training

Training for my first ever City to Bay is progressing well. Except there's been an unexpected hurdle. Unfortunately, the Gourmet Glaze outlet downstairs has come up with a great two donuts and a coffee for $4 offer, and it's a constant struggle to keep on walking as I pass it every day. It's amazing that it takes more will power for me to pass on the donuts than it does to spend an hour in the gym - I don't understand myself sometimes.

Poker


Tomorrow night I'm going to give the poker tournament another shot, and put a special emphasis on not making any dumb decisions. Hopefully it works out better for me than it did last week. Ando and I are going to the tournament together - kind of a western suburbs Worm and Mike D type thing. Not sure if Ando is bringing Carme this time, who I suppose would be Mike D's wet blanket girlfriend in this scenario, except she's the opposite, plus she plays poker (and better than the two of us if last week is any indication). I think I'll just try and relax, play my game, and realise that at the very worst I'm getting a nice beef schnitzel out of the night.

Urban India

Went out to dinner last night at a lovely little restaurant called "Urban India" on Henley Beach Road. The original plan was to have Thai, but when we got to the place, it was all booked out. They offered us a seat outside, but it was pretty cold, and besides, we didn't need their charity. So we ended up with our second choice, Indian, although I was pretty pumped when I remembered that they're the ones with naan bread.

Mirjana was first to order, and she ordered a chicken dish from the menu. Our waiter nodded, then said "If you like that, we have a special, with blah blah blah" (I have to be honest, I didn't understand all of the words he said). At the end Mirjana agreed that sounded good, and ordered it.

Me, my mind was made up, butter chicken all the way. Except when I ordered that, the waiter repeated his routine - "If you like butter chicken, how about blah blah blah" (I understood a little more this time, as he was talking about my meal). I couldn't really argue with his logic - what he was describing did indeed sound delicious, and so I ordered that. It was definitely weird - how often do you go to a restaurant, order with confidence, and have the waiter talk you into having something else? I wasn't quite sure why he was doing this, although when I got our final bill it was a little higher than I expected, so perhaps they were using the word "special" to mean "unique" rather than "discounted".

I can't complain though, the meal was very tasty. We ordered a side of naan bread of course, stuffed with garlic (I'm starting to enjoy this food stuffed with other foods concept).

When it came time for dessert, our waiter asked us if we would like to see the dessert menu, and we said no. A few minutes later another waiter came and offered us dessert and coffee, and again we refused. Less than a minute later, a third person came and just put the menus on our table. We didn't get anything, although I was a little curious to see how "Indian Ice Cream" differed from regular ice cream.

All in all not a bad little restaurant, if you don't mind being told what you're going to be ordering.

A few awards for 2006/07

Best Movie - Knocked Up


Honourable mention - The Departed (I was expecting this to be Goodfellas/Casino good, but it fell a little short), Stranger than Fiction (As good as Adaptation, plus it's got Maggie Gyllenhall).

The list of funniest movies I have ever seen now reads as follows:

1) Knocked Up

2) The Wedding Crashers

3) Anchorman

4) Swingers

5) Um . . . I think that's it. Maybe "Coming to America"? "Pulp Fiction"?

Did you ever notice how quickly comedies age? I remember watching stuff like "CB4" and "I'm Gonna Git You Suckas" when I was a teenager and they seemed hilarious - then rewatching them a couple of years later I'd barely crack a smile. That's really the only explanation for why there were like 8 Police Academy movies. Or why Chris Tucker and Martin Lawrence used to be working actors.

Album of the Year - "9" by Damien Rice

Honourable mention - "American Doll Posse" by Tori Amos (there's a lot of crap, but if you cut it down to the best ten songs, it's pretty good)

I'm just going to throw this out there while I'm making sweeping generalisations - the opening song on this CD - "9 Crimes" - is the best opening song on any CD, ever. The rest is pretty good too - from the catharic, intense rockers like "Rootless Tree" and "Me, My Yoke and I" to the more introspective, slit your wrists in the bathtub tunes like "Accidental Babies". Definitely my pick for album of the year, and the minute I can find a copy for under $10, I'm buying it.

Biggest Disappointment - The Port Dock Brewery


Honourable mention - The lack of heating in my house, losing my fantasy basketball league . . . again.

Twelve months ago this was one of my favourite eateries - good food, large servings, and with the two for one vouchers you got in the Messenger, really cheap. Then they got rid of the vouchers, and made the servings a little smaller - the food is still OK, but I can get that anywhere. Then last week when I went with Murray they ripped us off on our meals and we vowed never to go back. Until they reinstate the vouchers.

Day of the Year - Saturday 26 August, 2006


Honourable mention - Sunday 16 July 2006, Saturday 9 June 2007

I woke up, had breakfast with Murray, Amanda and Michella at the Lipson Street Cafe, and was pleasantly surprised that the owner had taken down all of the naked portaits of herself which previously adorned the walls. Then I spent the day at the Barossa Gourmet with Michella, and at night, rocked out with Murray and Mirjana at a Gyroscope gig. Good food, good company, good music - what more could a guy want from life?

Best Book - "Chuck Klosterman IV" by Chuck Klosterman

Honourable mention - "07 Seconds or Less: A Season with the Phoenix Suns" by Jack McCallum, "The Power of the Dog" by Don Winslow

It's the worst of his four books, but it's the only one he released this year so it automatically tops my list. Probably the best part is the interviews section up front - his interviews with artists like Bono and Britney Spears, and the insights he has into the culture of celebrity are really interesting. If you're looking for somewhere to start with Chuck though, grab his second book "Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs" instead. Or even "Killing Yourself To Live", which a lot of his readers hate but I think is seriously underrated.

A new low

I don't normally complain about TV. It's free, and if I don't like it, I can always go do something else.

I've always defended "The Simpsons" too - even a couple of years ago when people started to complain about it dropping off in terms of quality, I'd point out that it was still better than 90% of other shows on TV. But this week's episode . . . man, that was bad.

It's not just that it wasn't funny, it was as if they didn't even bother to write jokes for it. It's been that way for most of this season, the last few weeks have had maybe one or two moments where I laughed aloud. But this week it reached a new low - just placing the characters into a fantasy setting is not smart, or humorous. And let's face it, if the show isn't going to be smart or ironic, I'm just a little too old to be watching cartoons.

I'm not waiting for the glory years of the show to return, I know that era has passed. But this is currently the only show on TV I watch - is it asking too much for a laugh or two a week? Is it?

If you're reading this Matt Groening, don't think I won't go and read a book. Or phone a friend. I'll do it, I'm serious. I have other entertainment options. You've got till the end of the season to turn things around . . .

The weaker sex?

Those of you who live in Adelaide may rememember that it was a tad windy last night. You know, trees falling over windy. So obviously I wasn't overly looking forward to heading off to the gym after work. Nevertheless, I've got a fun run to run, so I fought through the urge to retire to my couch, and left the house.

I got to the gym at about 8pm - not the busiest time of the night, but usually there's quite a bit of activity there then. Looking around, it was half empty - and almost entirely empty of guys. There were still quite a few women on the treadmills and bikes, but I think there was only one other guy in the whole gym. The weights area was completely bare - I was the only one using the equipment. And it struck me as funny - the huge gorilla men who normally congregate around these machines 5 nights a week were nowhere to be found, presumably kept away by a bit of wind and rain. Yet all these women thought nothing of coming out and getting their exercise on . . .

I'm all in

Last night I played in my first live poker game with complete strangers (not counting my experience with Corey and Forcey at the Crown, since that only lasted about 90 seconds).

We (Murray, Amanda, Ando, Carme and I) went down to Alberton Oval clubrooms for dinner and a poker tournament.

The set up is interesting - the tournament itself is free, and everyone gets 1,000 in chips. However, you get a passport when you register, which you get stamped as you buy food and drinks. Once fully stamped you can then trade these in for an extra 500 chips - so if you just go there for the tournament, you'll have a short stack compared to everyone else.

Anyway, we got there early to have dinner and maximise our chances of winning. I had a beef schnitzel with dianne gravy, always a very solid option. Although it didn't actually arrive until just after 7.20pm, and since the tournament started at 7.30pm . . . well, not a lot of time for digestion.

It was quite disorientating sitting down at a table with eight or nine strangers, obviously of varying degrees of expertise in the game of Texas Hold Em. We had one elderly man at our table who didn't seem overly familiar with the rules (eg asking things like "Why do I always have to bet first?" when he was sitting to the left of the dealer). Of course, he lasted to the final 15, longer than any of us.

It took a big adjustment playing with a smaller stack too - we got 1,000 to 1,500 in chips each, but the blinds were 25-50, and went up to 50-100 after 15 minutes. Getting used to the conventions of the game - burning a card before laying down the flop, the turn and the river, getting the person to your left to cut the cards before you deal - was a bit weird, concentrating on all of these things as well as your cards.

Basically all of this is to say that I flamed out pretty early - probably about a third of the way in. I got frustrated, and made a stupid decision, trying to bluff with K-9 and went down to a pair of aces (there was an ace on the flop so it wasn't exactly a genius play by me).

Murray got knocked out before me, but got reinstated with a lottery draw later in the evening, where he lasted a few more hands.

Amanda got knocked out next, then Ando. Last one standing was Carme, who amazingly wasn't even going to play at the start of the night due to her concerns about her poker abilities. Nevertheless, she lasted to 16th place, playing most of the night with a "rules of poker" pamphlet by her side.

Training Day

I had a training session on Records Management at work today. Of course any time you have a training session at work, it brings back memories of the classic episode of "The Office" where Brent tries to inject a little too much of himself into the Werner Hogg corporate training day. I knew I wasn't the only one feeling it though when my colleague turned to me and said "If we're going to do a role play later on, perhaps I should play a Basil Faulty type character, you know, for the humour".

The highlight of the day though was this particular exhange . . .

Trainer: "Now can I have a show of hands of who is aware of the Government's Records Management Act?"

Complete silence, not a single hand raised.

Trainer: "OK, who here is not aware of the Government's Records Management Act?"

Once again, not a single hand raised.

Trainer: (by now slightly exasperated) "So let me see if I have this right - all of you here are aware of the Records Management Act, but also none of you are aware of it?"

For a split second I kind of felt sorry for her, but then I remembered she gets paid whether we put our hands up or not. It's not her fault I guess, it's just such a painful subject. Looking around the room it was obvious that I wasn't the only one who felt that way.

Knocked Up

Finally got around to seeing "Knocked Up" at the movies last night. There were advance screenings on this weekend, and the plan was to watch it Friday night. But things came up, and the plans were deferred to Saturday night. We made it as far as the cinema on Saturday night, but when we got there it was almost sold out, with a queue of 50 odd people waiting to buy tickets. We turned around and went home.

I was frustrated. Perhaps even angry. But I wasn't going to let this movie beat me. Sunday afternoon I went online to preorder tickets to the Sunday night session. Now when you do things like this, sometimes people will make fun of you. They will say "It's Sunday night at Arndale, as if it's going to sell out." But once again, the session did sell out, and I felt vindicated as we sat there in a cinema full of people. (It's really weird watching a movie in a packed theatre - I'm so used to sitting there with perhaps ten or so other viewers, you forget how loud it can be with a few hundred people laughing together).

Anyway, on to the movie itself . . . it was written and directed by Judd Apatow, who also did "The 40 Year Old Virgin". Despite the somewhat lewd subject matter, I really liked this film for the humanity in the characters - they didn't just take the easy way out with the jokes and handled the issues (reasonably) sensitively. "Knocked Up" is along the same lines - it is at times quite coarse, but also at times quite insightful.

The general plot is as follows . . ..

Ben is an unemployed, slightly overweight, weed-smoking slacker who lives in a big share house with a group of his slacker friends. Alison is a bright, ambitious, beautiful television producer, who has just been given a promotion to on-air presenter. While celebrating over drinks at a club she runs into Ben, they hit it off, and spend the night together at her place. The next morning they realise they have almost nothing in common, and go their separate ways. But eight weeks later she finds out she's pregnant, and contacts Ben to tell him he's the father. They then try and navigate their way through the responsibilities they now have to each other and the baby, and how this changes them (more so Ben really).

I really liked the guy who plays Ben, Seth Rogen, in this. He'd had smaller parts in "The 40 Year Old Virgin" and "You, Me and Dupree", but this was his first big role in a major movie. Paul Rudd was good too as Alison's brother in law. As I mentioned, the movie is pretty full on - the language isn't great, and there are a lot of what I guess you would call "adult concepts". It was funny though, and it did have a surprising amount of depth for a film of this type. If the language isn't something that will put you off, definitely check this out.

Breaking up is hard to do

At approximately 7.30pm last Tuesday night Serious Scott and I went our separate ways, after I completed the tenth of my paid-for-up-front sessions.

It was, I suppose, an amicable split. I told him it wasn't him, it was the money he was charging me. He ased if there was anything he could do to help, like direct debiting me weekly instead of taking all of my money up front. I told him that wasn't going to work out for me. So we said our goodbyes, acknowledging that we would most likely see each other round the gym.

So I'm on my own again, trying to navigate this crazy world of health and pysical fitness. Luckily, I have a new challenge.

On 16 September 2007, God willing, I am going to run 12km, from Adelaide to Glenelg. I'll be starting at around 8am, when I finish is anyone's guess. I suppose if I haven't arrived at my intended destination by 9.30am then something has probably gone terribly wrong.

Yep, I signed up for the City to Bay Fun Run. An email came round work today, offering to pay for the registration of any staff interested in participating. I figured it would be a good challenge, and keep me consistent with my exercise regime. Plus, it's only 12km, how hard can that be right? I've never actually run 12km before, but in my younger and fitter days I came close, and did so on a pretty regular basis. I only have to do this once.

While I feel reasonably confident of my chances of finishing, part of me can still imagine myself dragging my feet, gasping for breath, and looking up to see that I'm only at the South Road intersection. I'd better get training.

Rome

A couple of weeks ago I bought Murray "Rome" on DVD for his birthday. He finished watching it in about a week, and raved about it. So I decided to borrow it back from him and give it a go. (For my more cynical readers, I didn't just buy it for him because I wanted to watch it myself. Although that's not a bad idea).


Normally I'm not a big fan of period movies/tv shows - I don't like anything that is set more than 20 years in the future or more than 20 years in the past. Which rules out anything that involves either space ships, or dragons. This seems like it might be different though. To start off with, it was made by HBO. By my count, six of the top ten shows ever made were made by HBO - The Sopranos, Deadwood, Entourage, The Larry Sanders Show, Extras, and The Wire*. Of course they also gave us Sex and the City and almost ten years of Sarah Jessica Parker, but everyone makes mistakes. Also despite it being set in ancient times, there don't seem to be any elves or hobbits involved.

I watched the first episode last night, and it was pretty good. It was kind of hard to understand who was who, as a lot of the characters wore white togas. The fact that you're aware of some of them - Julius Caesar, Brutus, Marc Antony - by name if not anything else makes it a bit easier to follow. I'll stick with it for a few episodes at least, and who knows, I might even learn something.

*The remaining four being The Simpsons, Seinfeld, The Office and The West Wing.

Things better kept to myself

Sometimes I think I underestimate how loud my voice is. Today was one of those times.

We were in our monthly marketing briefing at work, and our boss was showing myself and around 40 of my colleagues a DVD on the new Tourism Australia website. The "Where the bloody hell are you?" ad ran for a few seconds, capped off by a clip of Lara Bingle on the beach. "Oh, I'm surprised they're still running that" she said as the clip ended.

Mirjana leaned over confused and whispered "Why don't people like Lara Bingle anymore?" To which I whispered back, without thinking about it too much "Because she's a slut."

Which would have been fine, if Mirjana, and perhaps just one or two other people heard it. Unfortunately, the room went dead silent at the time I chose to open my mouth. That, and the fact that my whisper isn't as quiet as it sounds in my head (a fact that Michella and Amanda could both verify, having once caught me trying to cheat in a friendly game of Pictionary), meant that everyone in the room heard my little comment.

What followed was a lot of laughing, and my face I'm sure turning a very bright shade of red. I felt a little better when after a few seconds the lady in front of me turned around to say "We're laughing because we agree with you." Still, from now on I think I'm going to start keeping some of these comments in my head.

Please . . . just walk away

I've sat through some pretty terrible movies in my time. I once watched "The Bodyguard" - from beginning to end - and even pretended to like it. Although that was hoping to impress a girl, so I'm not sure it should count. Here's a better example - in 1992 Forcey and I went to see "Stop or My Mom Will Shoot" - a film best described as a vehicle for Sylvester Stallone and the eldest of the Golden Girls - and again stayed through to the closing credits. (www.rottentomatoes.com gives it a rating of 6%, with reviewers quotes like "Being shot might be preferable to sitting through this" and "Stop! making lousy comedies or you'll permanently damage your career.")


What I'm trying to say is that I don't give up on a movie easily. If I've spent the time and money to go to the movies - or even the video store - I'm going to give something every chance to succeed. I reached my limit last night though watching "Miami Vice" - after about an hour I turned it off.

The original plan was to grab "Rest Stop" - a horror movie recommended to me by a colleague. But by the time I got to the video store I wasn't in a great mood, and didn't really feel like watching random people being murdered. I looked around for a while but nothing was jumping out at me - it was one of those times where you can't really find anything you want to see, but hate the idea of going home empty handed. So you talk yourself into something you never really wanted to watch in the first place.

Anyway . . . I get home and pop the movie into my DVD player, and it jumps straight into the action. So much so that it feels like I've started in the middle of the movie. After about ten minutes, I take the disc out, check to see if it's a double sided disc that I put in wrong, and realise I had been watching the start, they just neglected to include anything like opening credits. Or a proper introduction of the characters. As far as I could work out, they were undercover agents trying to infiltrate a drug ring. And they drove a Ferrari, and had a very fast boat.

The film was directed by Michael Mann, whose made one great movie in "Heat" and another pretty good one in "Collateral", and to be honest, it did look great. I just honestly had no idea what was going on with the plot. And when you can't follow the plot of an action movie, there's either something very wrong with you, or with the film. I'm going with the film.

So next time you're in a video store, and you talk yourself into seeing something you never really wanted to, do yourself a favour and walk away. Just walk away. I wish I did.

Ballin' in the Ghetto

A couple of weeks ago our Thursday night basketball comp got moved from the Powerhouse (Distinctive Homes Dome if you really want to be correct) to St Ives stadium at Port Adelaide. I can't really remember why, I think it had something to do with resurfacing the courts. Either that, or they realised they could make more money hiring the venue out to corporate clients.

So now we're at St Ives, and it kind of sucks. I've played here before, and it hasn't changed at all. Perhaps that's what seems vaguely depressing about the place - you play here for a while, then leave, get on with your life, make some new friends, start a new job, buy a new house - then you come back here and feel like you've instantly regressed ten years.

The main problems, as far as I can see it are:
1) Terrible lighting - it's light enough to play safely, but still dark enough to give off a sombre vibe.
2) Crappy rims - when you spend a lot of your time bombing away from the three point line, you really want soft rims that will - more often than not - give you a friendly roll. These don't fit that mould.
3) The size of the court - I can't prove this without the aid of a really long piece of tape, but I'm pretty sure the courts aren't full size.
4) The odour - a slightly musty smell that greets you as you walk through the doors.

It's not all bad though, there are a few benefits:
1) Probably the biggest advantage is that the stadium is only five minutes or so from my house. So the convenience is great.
2) Presumably since the comp organisers are aware of points one through to four above, they've lowered the cost from $9 a game to $7.50.
3) The snack bar seems to be at least the equal of the one at the Powerhouse, although since I don't eat mixed lollies during half time of our games anymore, that's of limited value to me.

Anyway we played there last night against Blaze. Who we rarely lose to, except when we played them in the semi finals last year, a game I'm still kind of bitter about. Last night we lost by one, but in our defense, we played the fiinal twenty minutes with four players after Ash injured his knee at the end of the first half. He's having an MRI on Monday, but it's terrible timing for him, having a ski holiday to New Zealand booked in less than a month . . .

Things I recommend

Entourage
Until the Sopranos returns or we get a third season of Extras, this is the best show on TV. Of course, it's not even on free to air, but that seems about right - you wouldn't want to deprive Australia of the chance to watch quality fare like "Two and a Half Men" in prime time. Still there are advantages to it being on Foxtel - they don't have to bury it at midnight like Channel 9 do with the Sopranos, and we actually get episodes only a few weeks after they air in the US, rather than a year later. How novel.

Nixon Watches
I bought myself one of these a few months ago and am now looking at maybe getting another. I got "The Player" which I suppose is fitting in an ironic sense.

Next up I'm thinking of "The Banks" in gold. The question is whether I can pull off a giant gold watch without looking like a complete loser. Michella thinks I can't. I kind of want to prove her wrong.


Top Taste Little Bites
Do you ever feel like just a few small bites of a piece of cake, but hate wasting food with all the starvation going on in the world? I know I do. And that's why I'm loving the new Little Bites range from Top Taste - perfect for topping off a lunch with something sweet without having to buy (and then devour) an entire muffin. Available from all good supermarkets in choc-chip muffin and chocolate brownie varieties.

"Can I Keep My Jersey" by Paul Shirley
I just finished reading this book, and if you have even a passing interest in basketball, it's worth having a look at. His self deprecating style of writing does wear a little thin after a while, but it's worth it just for the stories which show just how shallow and stupid the average NBA player is (eg guys making more than $10 million a year buying lottery tickets, hoping to win and be "set for life").

Cotton On
The clothes here aren't great quality. And come to think of it, with the amount they cost, they probably aren't manufactured in the most ethical way. But if there's somewhere you can buy a better tshirt for $10, I haven't found it yet.

Omlettes
I just recently discovered how delicious and easy to make these are. I take two eggs, half a tomato, three mushrooms, one spring onion, a handfull of grated cheese, add sea salt and cracked pepper, and mix it all up in a bowl. Pour the mixture into the pancake maker Forcey gave me for my birthday last year, and within five minutes dinner is served. Or breakfast . . . or lunch . . . that's the beauty of the omlette, it's the meal for all occasions.

Snow Patrol
I've only got the latest album but I'm slowly coming around to these guys. Initially I had them pegged as U2-clones, then (even worse) Coldplay clones, but I have to admit a few of their songs are really growing on me. Check out "Make this go on forever". They are coming here later this year, my early prediction is their concert will one day join the list of concerts I can't believe I passed up.

Top five meals for the weekend

I sure hope Serious Scott isn't reading .. . .

5. Saturday lunch
Where: My house
What: Two KFC Twisters, one Coopers Dark Ale.

Not a bad meal considering I just wanted to grab something quickly after the gym. Loses points because of the lack of ambience (eating on the couch in my TV room with the curtains closed) and company (dining on my own).

4. Sunday lunch
Where: Hungry Jacks
What: Chicken BLT Baguette (available for a limited time only), medium Fanta, a handful of fries
My philosophy is that if the people at Hungry Jacks (or McDonalds . . or Subway) put the time and effort into coming up with a new dish, the least I can do is give it a go. I thought this was a pretty solid addition to their baguette range - it's the standard country chicken baguette, but with free tomato and bacon. Unfortunately we didn't get the chance to stay long enough to sample something from their dessert menu, the sticky date pudding looked tempting.

3. Saturday Dinner
Where: My house
What: Spaghetti Bolognese, can of Coke Zero, single serve mixed berry and apple pie.

Normally this would be at number five on this list, but Michella has a bit of a talent for combining raw mince, Paul Newman's pasta sauce, and assorted herbs and spices and coming up with a delicious meal. Dessert was a Nana's mixed berry and apple pie - very tasty and easy to prepare at home.

2. Sunday Dinner
Where: My house
What: Combination Hot Pot, Can of Coke Zero, one of Karen Crouch's delicious home baked muffins

Then Peter approaching asked him, "Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?" Jesus answered, "I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times." Matthew 18:18-19.

Wise words indeed. Except someone who will remain nameless feels that these principles of forgiveness don't apply to restaurants who are forced to temporarily close down due to Health Department orders. So instead of getting a hot pot from Vietnam Restaurant at Pennington, we had to go to Vietnam Village at Thebarton. A bit further away, and the food wasn't quite as good, but it was just good enough to sneak into the number two spot, although a very distant second behind . . .

1. Friday Dinner
Where: Lenzerheide Restaurant
What: Gnocchi with Walnut and Cream sauce, topped with pesto, Steak Olympus, Creme Brulee and a glass of Wirra Wirra Church Block.

This meal might not be topped in 2007, definitely the classiest place I've ever eaten at. The food was great - the gnocchi entree was a playful yet mysterious little dish, and the main was kind of over the top - steak stuffed with prawns - but fantastic. It kind of reminded me of the Simpsons episode where Moe ordered the most expensive dish in the restaurant, stuffed with the second most expensive.

I think we may have stuck out - our waitress asked us as we were leaving if it was our first time, which of course I took to mean "you don't look rich enough to have eaten here before." Other than that she was nice though.

Smokin' Aces

Over the weekend Paul asked me if Ben Affleck had made a good movie since Good Will Hunting. I thought about it and couldn't really think of one (not counting Chasing Amy, as I think I'm in the minority when it comes to that one). Last night I saw what may be his first, despite (or perhaps even because of) the fact that he dies a violent death reasonably early on.

I had wanted to see Smokin' Aces at the movies. The selling point for me was the inclusion of Ari Gold, I mean Jeremy Piven, and the promise of high level violence just sealed the deal. Anyway I missed it there but grabbed it at my local Video Ezy last night (shouldn't that be updated to DVD Ezy sometime soon?)

The premise is reasonably straightforward - Buddy Israel (Jeremy Piven) is a Vegas entertainer turned mob associate turned snitch who is in the witness protection program, hidden away in a penthouse in a rural Nevada casino. The mafia have put a bounty on his head, and so it's a race between a few different groups of assassins and the FBI to get to him first. As luck would have it, they all arrive at roughly the same time, so the majority of the film is the bloody stand off between all of the different groups - kind of like the last ten minutes or so of True Romance, stretched into a full movie.

Jeremy Piven was great as the increasingly paranoid Buddy, isolated from the world and waiting for the inevitable. I also liked both the guys playing the FBI agents - Ray Liotta and Jeremy Reynolds. The script was decent I suppose, but you don't watch movies like this for the acting and dialogue, it's more of a "sit back and enjoy the carnage" experience.

I've read some bad reviews about this where people compare it to the films of Guy Ritchie and Quentin Tarantino, and if that's the standard you're holding a movie up to, yeah it's not going to make it. On it's own merits though I thought it was really good, I'd definitely watch it again.

Weekend in Melbourne

Just got back today from an extended five day weekend in Melbourne.

The plan was to leave at 6.30am Friday morning, although we didn't hit the road till about 8.30am in the end. Luckily we had a great mix of music to see us through (see below).

We got into the Melbourne area at about 7ish, thinking we weren't far off from a delicious dinner at Paul's house. Well, we were. After getting lost a couple of times we finally arrived at Paul's place about 8.45pm. A surprisingly tasty dinner of lemon chicken and satay veggies was waiting, and after tea Paul and I watched the Cavs get killed in game one of the NBA Finals.

Saturday morning we had breakfast in a delightful little place called "Flippin' Pancakes" in the Dandenong Hills. The exact name of the town escapes me but it was really nice, kind of like Hahndorf, but a little less rubbish.

After this we went shopping at some factory outlet complex, then later in the afternoon Paul and I schooled some Asian guys down at his local courts. David and Anthony their names were I think. Anyway really nice guys, not so hot at basketball though.

Dinner was at a local cafe "Smokin' Joes". Their advertisements say it's not just a cafe but a way of life, but I don't know, it kind of seemed like a cafe to me. We grabbed Babel on DVD, but unfortunately we all hated it.

The next morning we left Paul and drove out to Careforce Church at Mt Evelyn. Michella had heard the Pastor before and wanted to check it out, it was really good. From there we drove into the CBD, checked into the Radisson, and did some shopping. Having a late lunch we ran into a guy from Adelaide who just seemed desperately lonely. He started off bagging Melbourne, then bagging Adelaide, and I got the feeling he'd say anything just to keep the conversation going a little longer. We would have obligued him, but I really needed new trackies so we slipped away.

Dinner Sunday night was in the Radisson's restaurant. I had the steak, and it was probably the best meal I've had in recent memory.

Monday morning we planned an early morning walk in the park opposite our hotel, which looked stunning - it reminded me of Central Park in New York. Unfortunately we slept in so after checking out of the hotel headed to the Melbourne Aquarium. It was better than I thought it would be, but completely overcrowded with kids (being a holiday and all).

We left Melbourne about lunchtime and drove to Horsham. We checked into the Darlot Motel, and took the vouchers they gave us to the RSL for dinner. It was kind of nice - the place was a bit run down and the food pretty crap but the atmosphere was great, with all of the locals and ex-servicemen in there. We saw Shrek the Third at a local theatre, then retired to our room, where I managed to catch 15 minutes of Passenger 57 before Michella made me turn it off. Man that movie has not aged well. Kind of funny though that at one point Wesley Snipes was actually making popular movies.

Drove through to Keith this morning where we stopped for lunch at a nice cafe, then home this afternoon. A great weekend, but it's good to be home . . .

Making a mixtape

The making of a great compilation, like breaking up, is hard to do and takes ages longer than it might seem. You gotta kick off with a killer, to grab attention. The you got to take it up a notch, but you don't want to blow your wad, so then you got to cool it off a notch. There are a lot of rules.

I spent tonight making mix cds for my trip to Melbourne this weekend. Rob Gordon was right, it takes ages longer than you think it would. Possibly longer than I've spent actually researching things to do when I get to Melbourne. Anyway, if anyone is interested, here's what I came up with.

CD One
1. California Dreaming - The Mamas and the Papas
2. War - Edwin Starr
3. All Along the Watchtower - Jimi Hendrix
4. Use Me - Bill Withers
5. Wouldn't It Be Nice - The Beach Boys
6. Eleanor Rigby - The Beatles
7. Have You Ever Seen the Rain - Creedence Clearwater Revival
8. Under My Thumb - The Rolling Stones
9. The Sound of Silence - Simon and Garfunkel
10. Uptight (Everything's Alright) - Stevie Wonder
11. You Keep Me Hanging On - Diana Ross and the Supremes
12. Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down) - Nancy Sinatra
13. Time of the Season - The Zombies
14. Babe I'm Gonna Leave You - Led Zeppelin
15. In the Midnight Hour - Wilson Pickett
16. Hold On I'm Comin' - Sam and Dave
17. Little Red Riding Hood - Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs
18. Solitary Man - Neil Diamond
19. The Turtles - So Happy Together
20. I Heard It Through the Grapevine - Marvin Gaye

CD Two
1. Paranoid - Black Sabbath
2. Layla - Derek and the Dominoes
3. Tiny Dancer - Elton John
4. Freddie's Dead - Curtis Mayfield
5. Sure Know Something - Kiss
6. Go Your Own Way - Fleetwood Mac
7. Express Yourself - Charles Wright and the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band
8. Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd
9. Roxanne - The Police
10. American Girl - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
11. Cocaine - Eric Clapton
12. Hurricane - Bob Dylan
13. Heart of Gold - Neil Young
14. Baba O'Reilly - The Who
15. The Logical Song - Supertramp
16. Psycho Killer - Talking Heads

CD Three
1. Manic Monday - The Bangles
2. Love Song - The Cure
3. With or Without You - U2
4. Under the Milky Way - The Church
5. The Killing Moon - Echo and the Bunnymen
6. Into the Groove - Madonna
7. Bizarre Love Triangle - New Order
8. Never Tear Us Apart - INXS
9. Hello - Lionel Ritchie
10. You Shook Me All Night Long - AC/DC
11. Sweet Child O' Mine - Guns n' Roses
12. Short Memory - Midnight Oil
13. F.I.N.E. - Aerosmith
14. Call Me - Blondie
15. I Ran - A Flock of Seagulls
16. Wanted Dead or Alive - Bon Jovi
17. Rebel Yell - Billy Idol
18. Four Seasons in One Day - Crowded House
19. Africa - Toto

CD Four
1. Wicked Game - Chris Isaak
2. The Last Stop - Dave Matthews Band
3. Not an Addict - K's Choice
4. Pick You Up - Powderfinger
5. Polyester Bride - Liz Phair
6. Mama Said - Metallica
7. Dumb - Nirvana
8. Animal - Pearl Jam
9. My Friends - Red Hot Chili Peppers
10. Fake Plastic Trees - Radiohead
11. Losing My Religon - R.E.M.
12. Glycerine - Bush
13. What It's Like - Everlast
14. Easy - Faith No More
15. White, Discussion - Live
16. Wonderwall - Oasis
17. Every You Every Me - Placebo

CD Five
1. Volcano - Damien Rice
2. When You Were Young - The Killers
3. Son of Sam - Elliott Smith
4. From the Sea - Eskimo Joe
5. Take Me Out - Franz Ferdinand
6. Mad World - Gary Jules
7. Evil - Interpol
8. Orphelia - Kashmir
9. Time is Running Out - Muse
10. There She Goes, My Beautiful World - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
11. Let It Ride - Ryan Adams and the Cardinals
12. Make This Go On Forever - Snow Patrol
13. A Sorta Fairytale - Tori Amos
14. London Still - The Waifs
15. The Saints Are Coming - U2 and Green Day
16. In the Fade - Queens of the Stone Age
17. Twenty Years - Something for Kate
18. I Got You - Stone Temple Pilots

Great song, not so great dancing

I found this live version of "Set the fire to the third bar" by Snow Patrol with Martha Wainwright on youtube. Great song, fantastic version . . . but the singer looks like he's having a seizure of some sort.

Zodiac

Last night I used some tickets I won to go see "Zodiac". A few thoughts on the experience:

Arndale cinemas are totally dead on a Monday night. In our particularly screening (admittedly at 6pm) there were three people - Murray, myself, and an elderly asian man.

A lot of cinemas these days don't bother to put someone on the door collecting tickets - presumably because they don't sell enough tickets to cover the salary of both the person who sells you the ticket and the person who collects them. Pretty soon we're just going to be on the honour system with ticketing, as well as a self serve philopsophy for the candy bar.

Jake Gyllenhaal is great. I haven't seen a bad movie with him in it yet, although admittedly I've never watched that "Day after Tomorrow" film or the gay cowboy one. I think I'd strongly consider seeing both though just to watch his performance. He joins Ed Norton and Robert DeNiro on that list for me.

Robert Downey Jr plays an alcholic, who also has a drug problem. I guess that's what you call method acting. Actually it was kind of weird watching him/his character snort coke on screen. Murray joked that it was real and was part of his deal for appearing in the movie.

The movie itself was pretty good, although because it's based on a true story, it didn't have the resolution I was hoping for. I'd be interested to read the book that it is based on.

The film has a seventies look which was really cool - the film stock was kind of faded so it looks like it was made thirty years ago. The movie was pretty long - at least two and a half hours. Not in the league of David Fincher's great movies - Se7en and Fight Club - but probably better than Panic Room. Or any Jodie Foster movie really.

Murray's Birthday

Lies for the Liars

I'm not quite sure that I should share this, in case someone from the band is reading and it goes to their head (see previous post and the comment on it for explanation). But the new album from the Used, "Lies for the Liars", is quite good.

I bought their first album when it came out in about 2002 I think, after hearing "A Box Full of Sharp Objects". It was a decent debut, in fact the first four or five songs were great (if you like punk music with liberal amounts of screaming), although the rest of the CD was kind of average.

The next one was a CD/DVD with live versions of the first few songs from their first album ie the good ones, and some filler. Still good, but you're expecting a bit more at this stage.

The next album, "In Love and Death" really sucked. It was at about this point that it became impossible to walk down Rundle Mall in the middle of the day without tripping over freakish punk/emo/goth kids. Mainly because for some reason they like sitting on the ground (often outside bookstores), talking about death and My Chemical Romance (at least I think they do). Anyway these kids love bands like The Used, so I kind of stopped listening to them, scared that maybe one day I'd decide to dye my hair black, get full length arm tattoos and insert a small hockey puck in my earlobe.

After this album, they brought out another CD/DVD package, with live versions of the crappy songs from their last crappy album. Awesome.

Their new album came out a few weeks ago and I thought I'd check it out by downloading it. I was surprised to find out that it was actually a retun to their first CD - a bit heavier, with less of the ballady type stuff on the last album. It seems really rare for bands to actually revert to their previous form - once they start to suck, it's a slippery slope that's not easy to climb back up (also see Smashing Pumpkins, The). Somehow though these guys managed to recapture the feel of their first album without coming out with a carbon copy of it.

This kind of music isn't everyone's thing - actually I can probably only think of one or two of my friends who may possibly like this - but if you think you might be interested perhaps download "The Bird and the Worm", "Paralyzed" or "Wake the Dead". Or just watch this video where Bert pretends to be Kurt Cobain.

Quickflix

The other day I joined up with Quickflix for a free trial. The concept sounds good - you order movies online, they ship them to your home within a day or so, you return them in the reply paid envelope they send you, then they send you some more DVDs.

I can see one problem already - the cost is like $30 or more a month, which is quite a lot to spend on DVD rentals, assuming you have a job to go to and some semblance of a social life.

The other problem is you can't just order anything you want - you have a "queue" of movies you want to see - which they recommend you keep topped up with at least twenty titles. What this means is that you might not get your first pick, or your second, but there's a good chance you'll get your nineteenth. You'd be surprised how few movies there are that you are interested in seeing, I know I struggled to fill my queue.

Anyway I joined up last Thursday, and my first movies arrived in the post yesterday. Which was awesome timing since I was home sick. (Side point - staying at home in bed all day is not nearly as fun as I remember it being. I would have had to have been in intensive care to stop me coming in to work today, and I don't love my job that much). I didn't get the movies I really wanted, but the ones I got were pretty good.

The first one I watched was "The Wrong Man". Starring Josh Hartnett (as the wrong man), Bruce Willis, a surprisingly attractive Lucy Liu, Morgan Freeman and Sir Ben Kingsley. I thought it was really good - kind of like a Quentin Tarantino/Guy Ritchie movie, but with less funny dialogue and perhaps a few more twists. I recommend this one, check it out. Final rating - B plus.

The second was "World Trade Centre". I was kind of in the mood for this after watching "United 93" a week or so ago (which by the way was a bit of a weird film - it's all in real time so there's no real character development, backstory or anything like that - its just a 90 minute dramatisation of the event). I enjoyed both films but possibly World Trade Centre a little more - for one thing, anything with Maggie Gyllenhaal is usually better than something without her in it. Also this movie just seemed a bit wider in scope - the scenes they shot in the New York streets as the building was coming down looked amazing. Nicolas Cage can be a bit annoying but he was fine in this. I'd give it seven out of ten.

Live in concert . . . Samantha Fox

I saw an ad the other day for Count Down 2 at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre. Basically the idea is a whole lot of bands that nobody has really cared about for 25 or so years playing together, with the whole thing hosted by Molly Meldrum. I suppose the purpose of this type of thing is to a) ensure Molly continues to have employment in the entertainment industry until he dies and b) allow a whole lot of people to relive their youth by listening to songs from their adolescence.

Of course, if you're seeing 20 odd bands in the one night, you know that you're not really getting quality. No U2, REM, Police etc . . . the biggest name on the bill (or first one listed at least) is Rick Springfield. My only conection to Rick is shopping in JB Hi-Fi one day with Mirjana while she tried to find the cheapest possible way of purchasing "Jesse's Girl" on CD. I think eventually she decided $10 was too much to pay and we left. Which makes me wonder who is going to pay $100 to see him and all his friends in concert in 2007.

Anyway, what really struck me wasn't how crappy the lineup is . . . I'm sure there are people out there saying "If Samantha Fox, Richard Clapton and Kate Cebrano ever tour together I'm totally going" . . . it was that most of the performers were single people from bands. For example - Katrina (formerly of Katrina and the Waves) . . . Paul Gray (of Wa Wa Nee) . . . Les McKewon (formerly of the Bay City Rollers). Where are the rest of the guys? I want to know what the remaining members of Wa Wa Nee are doing that they can't make the show. Actually now that I think about it Wa Wa Nee sort of used to rock - maybe if they could get the rest of the guys back together it might not be half bad.

On second thoughts, maybe not.

Wouldn't it be nice

Drove up to Mintaro in the Clare Valley yesterday to check out a cottage on an acre of land. I was thinking the place would make a great weekender one day. Now obviously I don't have enough money to buy a weekender in the country right now, but Oliver the real estate agent didn't realise that. Or if he did, he decided to humour me. I felt kind of like George Costanza in that Seinfeld episode where he pretends to own a house in the Hamptons. I was just waiting for Oliver to call me a liar.

Anyway, it was amazing - 160 years old, with a giant main room, a few bedrooms, and a nice garden out the front.

The house fronted onto the main street in Mintaro, which is just beautiful - lots of great old trees and historic buildings, with cellar doors, a pub, a war memorial . . . if you took away the cars the place probably would have looked almost identical half a century ago.

Out back was vacant land - a few horses grazing in the next paddock over, an old schoolhouse on top of the hill - just an incredibly peaceful and relaxing outlook.

Unfortunately unless I come into $250,000 in the next week or so it looks like this place will remain a dream for me. Sure would be nice one day though.

Serious Scott

I've had a few people (OK fine, just one) request a picture of Serious Scott . . . well here he is. I'm sure you'd agree he kind of looks like an Asian Tim Pearce (well those of you who know Tim anyway).

Training sessions are moving along nicely. Still not a lot of smiling, but this week he was so pumped with my performance on the bench press he told me I was "f@#$ing awesome". That was nice.

After the session he gave me a photocopied sheet of paper with a drawing of a birthday cake on it. I figured it was a ploy to get me to buy him a birthday present (I would probably get him the Chris Rock Bring the Pain DVD, he could use a laugh) but instead it was a "gift to me". He's running a competition this month where in honour of his birthday, everyone who purchases a block of ten personal training sessions goes into the draw to win five free sessions. Still sounds more like a gift for him, but anyway.

Back soon with another update (and hopefully not in two weeks time).