sad…

leif garrett arrested for not having a train ticket and then the cops found drugs on him. man, what a bad pix. last time i saw him was a VH1 doco and he looked pretty bad there. but man did i ever like him when he looked like this.

big day out

yesterday was big day out – a day long music festival. i was thinking how i’ve been to 4 BDOs (and damn, it could have been 5 had au immigration been a bit faster with my visa!) and yesterday’s was quite different from the others.

first the location was different. due to construction work at the fair grounds (um, sorry, showgrounds), it was held in a large park near one of the unis (large but still smaller than the showgrounds). i figured it would be very crowded, long lines for beer, crap toilet facilities and was worried about the sound bleed since the 8 stages were all very close to each other. turns out sound bleed was really the only problem. the area wasn’t anywhere near as big as the showgrounds but didn’t feel crowded (the age sez it was a 38k sold out crowd) . having grass all around was nice but kim & i missed the pie!

another difference was the crowd. we noticed pretty early on there were a lot of older people there. older as in 30-40 but also 50+. they absolutely outnumbered the fairy/angel wing wearing young girls. we contributed this to iggy pop and possibly the more central location.

also, the presence of families. we were watching beasts of bourbon and had a grey haired 60ish guy carrying a latte go past followed by his woman and their daughter (granddaughter?) who looked to be about 10-12. the age also has an
article about families attending. a bit slanted considering the first family they highlight is the family of one of the guys in the beasts of bourbon band.

not to say the kids weren’t there. there were fairy wings and furry boots!! one of our fav moments was during white stripes when the 3 15ish yo boys in front of us decided they wanted a better view. the one crouched down so the other could get up on his shoulders. obviously they hadn’t watched how this was done (or as kim said… didn’t have older brothers/sisters) because the kid tried to leap frog onto the guy’s shoulders. totally didn’t get the leg over method. i sooo wish i would have been able to whip out the video cam for that.

i have pix of course (god, i’ve been v slack on the pix thing of late) but i thought i’d test out aussie acceptance of web2.0 and check flickr. there are bdo pix there but it seems folks haven’t cottoned on to the tagging yet (u have to look at the pix to see if they’re from melb or syd or wherever and some aren’t dated so there’s bdo 2005). some good ones though…

a protest against the sniffer dogs. for the first time melb cops were outside with 2 sniffer dogs checking folks.

of course i loved MR ORANGE.

the tennis

i’ll use the rain delay in the baghdatis/nalbandian match to talk about the tennis (and yes… i mean THE tennis.. the AU Open tennis).

one of the things i like about melbourne is how well planned some things were – for example, sports mad melbourne has decided to put their sporting arenas within walking distance of the CBD. so when you’re watching the open tennis, realise that it’s basically across the park from me (the park being the botantic garden) and i could walk from the apartment to rod laver in probably 20 min (walking casually). the other day i was sitting here watching the tennis and heard a helicopter on the tv going over one of the women’s matches and seconds later it was outside my window. such a bizarre experience. tonite i heard the fireworks start (said ‘what the fuck was that?!’) and by the time i uttered that sentance the newscasters on the tennis were talking about the fireworks.

which, btw, are for australia day. the equiv of the 4th of july.

when the rain started i saw it first on tv and 30 seconds later the rain exploded outside my window.

(oh… they’ve come back on court!!)

i went one day last week. spent the day in the sun watching some doubles, singles, guys & girls. none of the big names but still a great day. ill get the pix out sometime. ok… back to my tv screen!

a new wine concept

last nite i went to an alumni event (wooo hooo! i’m an alumni again!) at this new place called city vineyard (current site is a placeholder. i was told the real retail site will be launched in a week or so). melbournians… take note. this isn’t a bar, it’s a wine shop. the difference is you can taste every wine they carry before making a purchase. the tasting bit is what you see in the animation on the current site… u stroll up to this stainless steel bar and press the button of the wine u want to try. out shoots (into your glass which u hold under the number) a small amount of that wine.

warning: do not try to hold a conversation and look away while doing the button press… you’ll have wine all over your hand (yes, i speak from experience).

warning: yes, u can press the button multiple times and get a healthy glass although i’m assuming the staff would have a chat with you if that’s all you did.

the place only stocks AU wines & it’s the first indie wine distributor in australia (that’s pretty amazing and as i found out …. the reason why cellar door prices aren’t cheaper here… b/c the existing distributors demand incredibly low prices making it hard for the vineyard to profit but as there’s no other game in town they have to and then try to make up for loss of income at the cellar door).

being a networking evening, we drank a LOT of wine. it’s hard to know how much you’re drinking when you’re pressing buttons all nite but i was well on my way to trashed.

btw, they had sunset which is a kangaroo island winery we went to (and bought a bunch of). they also had another KI vineyard called dudley that we somehow managed to miss while on the island but had a v nice shiraz. there was one wine that tasted green & sort of like a not so sweet ribena (it was good even though i know that’s a horrible description). the shops owners have their own vineyard (something like craig o boat) and their shiraz (i think) was nifty. and there was a great one from gapstead (in victoria) called saperavi. turns out it’s a russian type of wine and i remember it having a slight port taste. wow.. i’m suprised i’m remembering this well.

anyway, it’s a v cool idea & those in melbourne should go check it out.

e-books

funny… about 2 weeks ago i was talking with a recruiter and explaining what e-books were. today wsj has an article about the new sony reader. at wsj i worked on both softbook & rocket-e-book. i wasn’t a big fan of either when i first saw them but the more i worked with them, the more i loved the rocket-e-book. i was ready to get rid of all my physical books except for the brautigan ones (and provided i could get digital copies of everything). the e-books are PERFECT for students. there were a ton of times during the mba i wished the technology was there.

this new
sony reader is lighter & smaller than the 2 i worked with. even plays mp3. it doesn’t say if you can highlight or take notes as you could with the 2 i’ve used. one of my fav things about the rocket-e-book was the design of the hardware with its curved bit that fit into your hand and sony doesn’t have that. it also doesn’t say if you can change the view from portrait to landscape.

one thing they definitely haven’t learned from last time around is the price. i vaguely remember the retail price for the older ones were in the 300-500 range and sony is quoting $349.

south au special on nz air

air nz is offering a pkg deal to south australia for U$1899 from sf or lax. this is the area that i visited back in november (and i’ve realised i never posted pix so i’ll do that). i don’t really agree with the itinerary though so would be good to see what sort of changes u can make. for example, we spent 3 days in adelaide & were bored. you fly out of melbourne but they only give u 2 days here (and there’s a lot more going on here than adelaide). the $1899 is pretty good even if ur just talking airfare. purchase by march 23 but it looks like the only blackout dates are over xmas.

food stuffs

for whatever reason, i have food links this wknd…

coffeegeek. this one got quoted in a nytimes article and is being blogged quite a bit. i have become the complete coffee snob here. it’s espresso machines all the way. drip machines are almost illegal. i read their ‘how to froth’ article (i haven’t mastered frothing yet) and except for the art work it’s seeming v basic to me so i guess i’m a master!

another cool food link i found this wknd is cereality (i want to say via gothamist with a note they’re opening in the city but not sure anymore). it reminds me of peanut butter & company. yum yum. cute little idea although i wonder how popular it is since cereal isn’t very mobile. still…. i could do w some wheat chex!

for xmas one of my friends bought me the ben & jerry’s ice cream book (you can’t get b&j in australia). for new years eve we made vanilla & it turned out great. tonite we attempted ny super fudge crunch. it was a v warm evening tonite & the ice cream wasn’t getting as thick as it normally does. the bowl i had was too runny so i’m hoping some time in the freezer will rectify the consistency issue. i think next we’ll have to tackle a fruit version (thinking peach or berry) or cookie dough (kim is dying for this one).

also this wknd… worked (boring), saw ‘good nite & good luck’ (good!), went to a hen’s party (better than figured) and enjoyed the warm weather (was like 41c/105f today!!!! wooo hooo!!!).

someone else noticed

i missed this… seems one of the newspapers, herald sun, called melbourne a scrooge city b/c of the lack of good xmas decorations. i can’t retrieve the article but here’s a metroblog post about it with some comments

perfect explaination

i am still working thru reading 123 reasons to love nyc and just found the quote below.

i think i need to keep this one handy as i’ve been critised for complaining about melb (or london) so much and asked why don’t i just go home if i hate it so much…. ah… they just don’t understand.

No. 121
Because . . . know what? I’m a New Yorker. We don’t talk about the things we love. We complain about the things we’re pissed off about.
—Matt Dillon

politics au style

i’ve bitched about the quality of the morning tv shows before but this morning the today show actually discussed 2 topics i haven’t heard anything about before (of course they did a shit job but at least they highlighted it).

first, on friday a new law went into effect. i hadn’t heard about this before but
comlaw shows it was passed in mid 2005. this amendment to the criminal code act makes it illegal to discuss euthanasia (via fax, phone, email or internet) if you are discussing the practical side of how it occurs. (age article here where this is called a modern day book burning). the amendment states it’s safe to debate euthanasia in ‘is it right or wrong’ way but debating the best way to do it seems to be illegal.

the second troubling story concerned people getting a divorce. currently, aussies file for divorce but have to wait a year after filing for the divorce to be final. during that time they need to attend a counseling session to see if the marriage can be saved. this morning they reported this concept is being expanded by developing gov’t family relationship centres. the article i just pointed to seems to indicate the family law act has been changed already but the today show did not state if this was a plan or already law – just that these centres will be private & there’s currently a tender process for people wanting to run them.

it seems couples would be required to go to a 3 hr session and possibly seminars where the emphasis is on saving the marriage. i find it interesting there will be 65 of these centres around the country and wonder what sort of problems that will cause people who live in the middle of nowhere (reminds me of the recent article in ny mag re: nyc being the abortion capital of the states because of other states restrictions like waiting periods making it too hard to get an abortion in their state). for example, the article tells where the first 15 of the centres will be and there’s one in all of tasmania which means some people could be forced to drive possibly 4 hrs (and possibly more, i’m estimating based on driving times listed at a car rental website) one way.

the interview on the today show (and i didn’t catch the guy’s name) indicated that divorce is already a govt issue since the govt grants the divorce and since many divorced families find themselves on govt support like welfare. ah ha! so if we keep them together, there will be less people on welfare. i wonder how long til the govt figures out a way to decide how many kids each family should have (cause you know… after x number, they end up on welfare and need support for all those kids….) or begins a govt approved dating service so we don’t end up with the wrong person to begin with (starting the slippery slope of possible divorce, too many kids and ending up on welfare).

argh! i guess this is what i get for waking up early. morning rage.

btw, in trying to find a good aussie politics website, i found this listing of senate abuses btwn july and dec 2005 (july is when howard began controling the senate) but not a great politics website. anyone know of one?