Pretty slow week.

Was going to apply for a job the other day, but then decided it was too much hassle to write a cover letter. Met up with Kurt in teh afternoon and he said he applied for the same job. He'll probably get it, now I'm thinking I should've gone for it.

Jess and Young Tom Harrison met us at the pub near Flinders St. Mark and Chan were waiting at the station not realising where anybody was, and Ash and Sandra were at the station somewhere bitching out and asking me and Jess to come meet them rather than them come across the road, even though we already had drinks.

We had Indian which was good. I never had Indian before. The guys on the org suggested a meal for me, and it was worth it. Would eat again.

We went to some bar and we're drinking, then they called last drinks at 9.45. Total bullshit.

Ash, Chan, Sandra and Kurt went home early. Me, Jess and Mark hung out for a while and Tom's friends came and met us. Jess went home, the rest of us went to another bar until we ran out of money.

We got kicked out at 1 and me and Mark just hung out at Federation Square until about 2.

Mark leaves on Sunday for his new job up in Gove, NT. he has to be up there for a whole year and I don't think he is totally sold on the idea. Once I get a bit of money I'll probably go up for a visit.

Totally lazy today. next week I'll probably get into looking for a job (although I said the same about this week). I need to do it, but I just can't be fucked.

Got 35/40 for my final report. Really fucking impressed. Once again I blew everyone away with my "doin it the day before it is due" style.

Passed my Cert4 in Workplace Training and Assessment today. Just need to get $500 and I am a fully qualified trainer and assessor.

It's been 36degrees pretty much everyday. Sucks.

I think that is all.

.

Uni is completely over.

I officially have 1 month to find a job. Then my centrelink payments stop and I can't pay rent anymore.

Handed in my portfolio for Training and Assessment on Friday. Hopefully I hear about that soon, and hopefully I've done enough to get accredited, but whether I do or not has no bearing on my uni degree. It would limit my career opportunities though.

I have looked at jobs, but not really. I'm kind of in the "can't be fucked" state of mind right now, so I keep putting it off. I've seen a lot that say you need at least 5 years experience in industry, etc. bullshit. I'll just stay away from those. But right now I could care less. Wait til the end of the month when I start freaking out because I haven't applied for any jobs, then I'll be really fucked.

Weather is getting hot. Hot as in 'ice cubes are required'. I can always tell the humidity because normally my hair sticks up at the front. But these days it keeps drooping down over my forehead. Which is alright I guess. I think it gives me a bit of an edge, a bit less of a "i'm going bald" look.

Heard the new Chuck Ragan record. It's good. I'll probably like it more once I get the actual record and give it a few spins, but right now there are only a couple stand out songs. It'll be good though. I just have to wait until I get a job til I can afford it.

My brother's baby is due in January. I'll be an uncle. I'm not so excited. I mean, I don't care either way at this point. Little kids don't really appear on my radar as anything but annoyances. I live 800km away anyway.

Played a lot of Castlevania on DS recently. That's about it. Just trying to take it easy. Lots of drinks, not much sleep.


alright.

...To Be Sad, To Be No-one, Pretend You're Something More Than You Are, But You're Not.

Fake Problems It's Great To Be Alive is definitely my album of the year. But the dumb part is that I've had it for about 6 months but only recently played it.

My eyes still hurt from the last few days.

Stayed up all saturday night working on a construction safety management plan. Then all day saturday, then finally finished it at 3am monday morning.

Then I spent a bit over 2 hours opening survey returns from mail out survey i did. I got 65% response rate, which is impressive (average response to surveys is usually 22%). So I had to collate that data because monday afternoon i had to present my results.

At 6am that morning construction works started outside.

Last night was the first night of sleep I've had since Friday night. So it's been a rough weekend.

Yesterday was the last day of uni. We went for some drinks and played some pool. It was alright, but I think we all had it in the back of our minds that we won't be hanging out anymore.

Ash keeps saying that she already misses us.

I still have 3 things left:

• Photoshop assignment (not important, I already have enough to pass)
• Science Project final report (super important, this needs to be good or I could fail the course)
• Training Portfolio (also pretty important, don't need it to pass but I need it to get training qualifications, and I need training qualifications)

Sandra was supposed to call me this morning to come in and help her out with her photoshop project, but she hasn't called. Either she decided not to do it, or she is caught up with trying to get her portfolio together.

.

i think it's from staring at the screen for so long.



I just finished a safety poster for The Reject Shop on safe work practices for use of trolleys and pallet jacks, both powered and non-powered. This is for my presentation on Monday.

Speaking of Monday, it will be my last ever class at uni. Unless I do another degree, and if I do it won't be for a very long time. I'm not feeling ready to start working again, but I am feeling the need to start working again. Also, I feel happy and comfortable with the field of study I chose, I don't feel I am gonna need a career change for some time.

Anyway, I now have until Monday to get a presentation ready to go with my poster. Yeah, this is my final presentation, the big one, a major piece of work, and it's gonna get done in about 20 minutes on Sunday night.

I also have to have a construction safety management plan done by Monday morning. This bastard is supposed to be about 100 pages, I'll be lucky to get to 50. And even then it's not gonna be quality. Did I mention I haven't started this yet? It's gonna be a long weekend.

Monday night we are gonna have a few drinks I think. We're supposed to be going to the Oxford Scholar Hotel after the last presentation to celebrate, but to me it's a bit too sad for celebrations, I'll go along to drown my sorrows instead. And then I'd say we're all going our separate ways. None of us live close enough to each other to hang out, we're going to be busy working/getting jobs, etc.

It's like, you always knew uni was gonna end someday but it was too far off to care. And now it's happening, and it is kind of a punch in the face, I've gotten so used to hanging out with these people everyday.

It's funny to think of the first couple days of uni, we'd all hang out in a big group between classes and shit, but not actually talking to each other. Good times.

Enough nostalgia.

Things to do:

• I need to pay my graduation fee early next week, or I won't be graduating
• Still need to get my final report for science project in by the 26th
• Portfolio for Cert 4 in Training and Assessment needs to be done by the 30th
• Go to office works, print poster tomorrow
• Go to hardware shop, buy washers, replace washers in kitchen sink (fucking leaky tap)
• Probably forgotten a bunch of stuff, but I don't care anymore, I'm going to bed

There is no time to have a drink this weekend

goddamnit

.

On sunday I went to the folk punk section of the Poison City Weekender at The Arthouse.

It was awesome. The music was up in the beer garden, which I didn't even know was there.

From memory I think the players were:

• Jen Buxton
• Black Is The Colour
• Darren Gibson
• Wil Wagner
• Fear Like Us

I only caught the last two songs of Jen's set. But she is good and I like her music, and she made a funny joke.

Black is the colour I believe is a 3-piece featuring the lead singer of Coue Method. He's a good singer, and I like this stuff better than Coue Method actually.

Darren Gibson was amazing as usual. He opened with A Friend of Mine and then played Cut Me In Half, which are the only 2 songs of his that I really know. So I figured I'd be a bit disappointed that I didn't know the rest of his songs, and then he played a Chuck Ragan cover! Awesome.
He also made some good jokes.

Wil Wagner I had never heard before. I don't know if I'd buy his music, but live he is amazing. Reminded me of 2000-era Against Me! when it was just Tom Gabel. In fact, he said that a few days earlier he had done a set of Against Me! covers.
He has a pretty unique sounding sort of voice and a lot of stop-playing-guitar-and-just-scream-to-the-crowd kind of stuff. It was cool.

And finally, Fear Like Us, which is what everyone had been waiting for. They only play 2 or 3 shows a year, maybe less.
They opened with She'll Be Right and played mostly album songs, which is cool, because I've been listening to it non-stop for the last 3 weeks.
They played Neo Deceptor Cons which is my favourite song of theirs. Streets of Mexico, Songs of Rattling Keys, Music and Movement, amongst others. I think they played a cover or two. And ended with a new song? maybe.
About halfway through the set Jamie Hay whipped out the banjo.

One of the best things I've ever seen. Maybe the best show I've been to since I first saw Conation and Against Me!

maybe better.

Just got back this arvo from Shepparton. What a piece of shit that place is.

We were there for manufacturing safety. Went up on Monday morn, came back today. It was pretty fucking boring, except that I love road trips.

Monday night we left the RSL after dinner, only to find out the pub at the motel was closed. So we went to BWS, and found out they were closed. We sat around the pokies for a moment thinking we were screwed when Tom Harrison said that there was a drive through bottle shop upt he road. So we walked up there and bought a bunch of stubbies and bundy red and a few cruisers for the girls and justs went and got fucked up in Ash and Chan's motel room.

At about 12.30 I think me and kurt started fighting over something and Ash said we should go. So we went back to our room and while I was in the toilet Kurt and Mark went down to Sandra and Jess' room to kill a spider for them. I followed them, not realising they had left the key in the room, so we were locked out of our room.
Shepparton on a Monday night is pretty much completely shut down. So it's nearly 1.30am and we figure we're fucked. I throw my safety boots at Kurt and go hunting for a motel person. Luckily I found a bartender, in the dark, cleaning some glasses near the pokies, so we got back in the room.

This morning I woke up with food poisoning from the shitty RSL dinner. It sucked, as we had to visit a recycling plant and the SPC Ardmona processing plant.

Don't go to Shepparton. Especially if you want to go drinking.

Shit night after a shitty day during a shitty month of what has turned out to be a pretty shitty year.

I just ordered a ticket for poison city weekender. I was gonna go get one from the corner box office, but they ran out of their ticket allocation or some shit, so i just ordered it from Poison City estore.
I think they are pretty lax about updating their website, so it could be they are out of tickets anyway. But if I do get one, I'll probably just go to the folk punk afternoon show. Not excited enough to hang  around and see Kill Whitey and not really a big fan of Samiam.

Trip to Shep in 2 weeks. We finally got some accommodation on the cheap. I think maybe paying $40 each. I think we're just gonna be getting drunk though. I think I already said I'm looking forward to the bus trip most.

Got 37/40 for a presentation i did on concreting safety. Pretty awesome.

But science project isn't going great. I have enough info to do a lit review, but I need to get my survey questions out like, this week, otherwise October will roll around and I've got nothing.

Booze cruide coming up in about 20 days, so that should be fun.

And next week is Gloria's going away party, it'll be good to finally get a chance to have a drink. I've been so busy I find myself just wishing for a spare moment to sit back and have a few drinks, but all this work is not letting up.

I heard that next Monday I am supposed to be presenting a forklift safety presentation. And then on tuesday a presentation on OHS for lifeguards. Didn't even see those coming. I'm supposed to have someone doing it with me, so I'll see if I can lump the foot work on them and then try to take the reins a bit more on the day.

Damnit I need $20 right now!

I've been planning on buying tickets to Poison City Weekender for the sunday arvo show (mostly folk punk). But suddenly Samiam were added to the lineup for that day. I don't really care, except that tickets will probably start selling faster.

I'm pretty broke (no money in bank account, credit card is maxed, wallet has no cash). So I've been waiting for my tax refund, which is going to be $870 thanks to that one month of work I did in February : ) anyway, I gave them the wrong bank account number so I have to wait for them to send me a cheque.

Poison City Weekend is on the 20th and I'm off on a bus trip with my OHS mates to Shep on the 21st, where we plan on getting fucked up between sporadic safety checks on some of the local manufacturing plants. Should be good. I love punk music, I love bus trips with friends (it's like a road trip, except in a bigger car with more people), and I love getting wasted in some dodgy hotel. Maybe even write something on the wall with a sharpie. And in case you were wondering, it's a private bus, i won't have to deal with all the bogans who usually piss you off on bus trips.

I bought Birdy a bunch of bird toys last week. She got scared and wouldn't go into her cage until I took them out.

In summation:

• The Lawrence Arms write great songs
• I don't know if I have class tomorrow morning, but I do know I'm superbusy with about a dozen assignments
• Underbelly 2 was fun, but not as good as Underbelly 1
• Found a vet for the birdy's check up and nail trimming, don't have any way to get there
• The org has a message board now. My productivity just decreased by 300%, procrastination increased by 500%
• Saw Coraline in 3d this week, awesome
• Assignment due tomorrow, I forgot about it, now the only time I have free is after 1am... it's gonna be a late night
• When you're tired, headache and in a rush to get things done, it's easier to blog in bullet points

Work to be done:

• Construction Site Safety Management Plan (100+ pages)
• Presentation on OHS in Road Construction Crews
• Presentation on OHS in Surf Lifesaving
• Presentation on OHS for Concrete Workers
• Presentation on OHS and Forklifts
• Safe Work Practices project for The Reject Shop
• A whole bunch of photoshop stuff

LaGrecia was a short-lived band fronted by Jason Shevchuk of None More Black and Kid Dynamite fame.

Everything Jason does is gold. He has a kickass voice, he's a strong songwriter and the music is always fun. LaGrecia was a band he formed in 2008 after giving up on his solo project On Guard.

The songs are slower and quieter than his previous bands, while not quite being acoustic. With LaGrecia it was all about the songwriting. But it's fun listening and super fun to play on guitar.

Anyway, the band broke up about a month before the album was released because Shevchuk and the girl playing the drums were dating and they broke up. Bang. End of band before the album even drops.

On the plus side, Shevchuk got None More Black back together and we might see a new album from them in the next two years sometime.

Well, I'm superbusy these days.

Assignments - I did three yesterday and have 2 more to do tonight. Then I have another one due in 2 - 3 weeks. In addition to this I have a number of presentations coming up including: surf lifesaving safety, safety in road construction crews and safety for concrete workers.
Sometime between all this I need to find time for my major project for The Reject Shop. I just did a project brief last night, because today was the deadline as far as uni requirements go. However, Violeta has been in Perth for a week or so, and I haven't been able to confirm the plan with her prior to submission. Basically, this means I've submitted a plan that has no backing from the person I am doing the project for. I hope to clear everything with her on Wednesday.

So tonight I have a mountain of work to do (due tomorrow) for uni and then tomorrow night I also have a ton of stuff to finish up (due Wednesday) for Violeta.



I wish I could just sit and watch a movie and have a drink.

.

Last week was first week  of the last semester of uni. Only 11 weeks to go until graduation.

Since my science project fell through, I had Leo set me up somewhere. It's a relief, but I'm kind of worried there's not enough work to be done, if this is true I could fail the entire subject.

The next three months are going to kill me. Already we can see lots of assignments are coming in, and much harder than ones we've done before.

The Saturday Night part of the Poison City Weekender has sold out. No more tickets. There is still tickets for Sunday Afternoon though. I'm not sure if I should get one.

Pros:

• Fear Like Us
• Darren Gibson
• At the Arthouse

Cons:

• I'm sick of going to shows by myself. It sucks.
• A bunch of shitty bands that I don't care for are also playing.

So, I'm gonna have to think about it. I don't want to miss Fear Like Us, they don't play very often (with Jamie Hay being in other bands and all), and Darren Gibson kicked ass last time I saw him play, also, he is a good songwriter.
But if I wait too long, I could miss out on ticket for that as well, the shows not even til September, I'm blaming all this selling out on Samiam and Bodyjar.

Back to class tomorrow. First class with Gloria since 2007, it's going to be long and drawn out, and she's probably gonna give us really annoying fuckin assignments.

>: \

In other news. I downloaded this game called Audiosurf (which I played from 10.30pm until 5.30am). It's like, you're this little futuristic hover car sort of thing driving along a 3 lane highway and you have to hit the coloured traffic and avoid the grey traffic.

Sounds gay? Well it would be, except for one thing:
When you choose your music, the game analyses the tempo, pitch changes, instrumentation, etc and builds the track based off the song, then you drive on a track that keeps changing based on the changes in the song, and the speed changes with the tempo of the song.

But it doesn't end there, it's not just some stupid built-in crap background music, you choose your song from your own playlist of mp3s. Some songs are easy (Chuck Ragan's brand of folk punk, for example), while others just kick your ass with twists and turns and super speed, like Propagandhi or...

Streetlight Manifesto (yes, that was my segue from one topic to another), who are a great ska band with horns and everything. The dude was also in Catch 22 years ago, and also does Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution.
But the important thing is that they are a great ska band, and have some great songs. The downside is that they are lazy when it comes to putting out new music. But the last album was very cool.

And now I have to go buy some chicken so I can take chicken sandwiches to school tomorrow.

.

On Tuesday I emailed Corey to let him I know that this is my last week of holiday and I need to confirm my science project by Friday afternoon. He said he'd let me know as soon as he hears from them, but suggested I should have a backup plan in case it falls through.

So, my last resort, emailing Leo about it. Since he was so uppity about us leaving it til the last minute and all that shit. But surprisingly he said "just wait til Monday, I have a few ideas and I think a few others might have a similar situation"

So for the last two days I've just been trying to enjoy my holiday, as opposed to stressing out about no project and possibly not graduating this year.

The thing is, Depending on Leo for a project takes away any control over it. I mean, with the project I have been trying to get going, I knew where it would be and I knew how I could best work it to my advantage. A project from Leo could be anything, anywhere and I won't have much time to sort it out because the first deadline is a proposal on July 31st.

I really shouldn't worry about it. The next three months will be stressful enough, I should just be happy I still have a few days to relax.

.

I've been meaning to mention Thought Riot for a few weeks.

I first heard them on an A-F Records sampler I got in 2002. And they were awesome. It had two off their erlier songs 'Save The Humans' and 'Sign Of The Times', which I instantly loved.

But their second album was where they really kicked ass. Kelley (the chick on guitar) started doing some pretty cool screams (growls) at very appropriate moments that gave the songs a bit of extra fun. And the record was a lot more hardcore than their first.

The song writing was awesome too. Being on A-F Records, it had to be political punk of course, but their lyrics were smarter and more intelligent than Anti-Flag's slogan-based choruses.

They broke up in 2004 I think. And I believe maybe a couple members became teachers? I could be wrong. The worst part is that it  is impossible to get their music on vinyl, so I have to settle for a handful of mp3s. Bah!

Anyway. Uni results today!

Professional Scientist: Credit
Environmental Auditing: Distinction
Occ Hygiene: Distinction
OHS Design and Strategy (aka 'The Airport Project'): High Distinction

So, yeah, I win. I win hard.

Now the bad news. My science project is still not confirmed. I need it to be ready to start on Monday, so I need it confirmed by friday. If they say no, I don't have enough time to organise something else. I'm feeling kinda screwed here.

I just have to hope for the best and hope that my recent run of luck continues.

It's been a pretty decent couple weeks. I really wish this would work out okay. If it does, then I'd feel like I can do anything!

What else?

My cousin Matt stayed here for a few days over the weekend. He's pretty adventurous, never been to Melbourne before but he was all over the place. I don't even know where he was half the time. He's only 17, so we couldn't go out for a drink or anything. I think he'll probably be back again when he can save up for another trip down, and when he's on a break from school.

I had a sweet, awesome, horrifying, terrible, crazy dream. You know the kind of dream that freaks you out, but when you wake up you want to go back in? Yeah, everyone knows it. Those are the fun kind.

I don't care to share it, but I think I will write it down. I'd like to work on a short story or maybe a comic when I can find time and I think I can use pieces of dreams I have. It can get pretty crazy up in my head sometimes.

Alright.

Last night was Alicia's last party in Melbourne.

It was pretty good. I only had a six pack of bundy and coke, so I decided to take half a bottle of bundy with me (that's a half full bottle, not a bottle cut in half). This paid off because later on I was able to be drinking straight from the bottle and then chasing it with the premixed bundy and coke. I was also told that I was hardcore.
When we were waiting for the tram, I still had a few mouthfuls left in the bottle, so I told everyone if they take a hit from the bottle, I'll do it straight after them, and we finished off the bottle. So it was fun.

Met some pretty cool people. Which is good, cos I figured I'd probably only really know Ali, but I got along with everyone, which is unlike me. Polly, Leesa and Jess I knew from high school (they were in my brother's year) and Marina I met before. But everyone else was a new face, but good people. I also saw Crowden, for about a minute, he wasn't at the party but he was in the city when we were trying to get money from an ATM.

We went to Bang. Despite the shitty time me and Boyle had that time we went there. But it was alright. I guess it works if the people you're with are into dancing and you've drunk a six'er + half a bottle of bundy.

I left at about 4am I think, a few people from our group were leaving, but I couldn't find Ali, so I didn't get to say goodbye.

So, now I'm severely hungover, I'm tired and I feel down because now that Alicia is gone, my only other real friend I can hangout with is Alisha (my ex), and she doesn't really make time for me anymore. My uni friends are great, but we mostly just talk on facebook and send each other messages, etc, not really hanging out.

I feel like Randy at the end of Clerks 2 when they are in jail and he says something like:
I don't want to be making new friends at my age, I hate everyone, and everything seems stupid to me.

.

The Living End were my favourite band forever. I first heard them in... 1997, i think.

And really, they were the first band I got into, along with Grinspoon, that wasn't from my Dad's collection (not knocking that collection: The Police, Queen, Van Morrison, Petula Clark).

When I first heard All Torn Down it was instantly my favourite song ever. That intro guitar just kicks ass. And the whole first album is riddled with technically proficient guitar that still sounds rough and punk and fun, but also rockabilly.

Songs like West End Riot (today's title) are just so fun to play. And the songs from the earlier EP's It's For Your Own Good and Hellbound.

Roll On kicked my ass in 2000, and it sounds like AC/DC playing punk music. Just like the first album, it is perfect. As far as guitar goes, it's a lot more difficult to play. As far as listening, it's not so much fun as it is awesome. So it's still perfect, but a different kind of perfect.

When I was finishing year 12 they released Modern Artillery, and I have fond memories of driving to final exams with Alisha and blasting that album the entire time. The thing is, I really didn't appreciate it  at the time, I just kept thinking that it wasn't as good as the older stuff. But those songs have a charm to them that maybe I'm only feeling because I get nostalgic about being 18 and just finished high school.
The music itself is very different: lots of upstrokes in the guitar lines, lots of reverb, lots of layering and the guitar solos really don't standout like they did previously. But the song writing is great and Chris really hits his stride as far as singing technique goes.

I won't comment on the newer albums. But suffice to say, while some newer songs are good, the albums as a whole don't hit me like a brickwall. But this often happens as bands mature and their sound changes.

Okay.

Science Project. Corey is working on hooking me up with Visy doing chemical management. It all sounds exciting, but my transport situation makes it difficult to get out there (I'm actually not sure whether it'll be at Laverton or Springvale). I'll have to take a train and then a bus.
So hopefully all goes well and by the end of the week I'll have something confirmed.

But it does suck that we need to work out this project ourselves. I mean, they do it under the guise of getting us ready for the workplace. But no employer is going to say to us, "Alright, go and find people who need work done". It's not quite the way business and employment work.

But I go along with it for the sake of graduation.

I put new strings on my guitars and they kick ass. I cleaned the fretboard on my electric guitar and it looks fantastic. And my acoustic guitar just sounds beautiful. I should change strings more often.

Alright.

I can't believe I haven't talked about The Clash yet. They were once called 'the only band that matters' and still mean as much to a lot of people.

Their first two albums are great, but if you want perfection: you can't go past London Calling. If The Clash was the only band that mattered, then London Calling is the only album that matters. And it's not just for punk rockers either, it's got punk, rock, jazz, ska, reggae. It's just the best.

So, about halfway through my holiday. I have 3 weeks to go, which also means... 3 weeks to finish organising my science project for next semester. It seems like a long time, but given my recent inclination to spend days at a time sleeping, drinking or just lying on the floor until I realisse it's 1 in the morning ad going to bed... the time is gonna burn away fast.

I should be able to easily organise some occ hygiene project. But I'm worried that it won't be sufficient for the universities requirements. This project is worth 100% of our marks, so if I fail this, then I don't graduate this year.
I'd hate to organise this thing, and then turn up in the first week of semester and be told "Chris, this is pathetic, not good enough". Not only do I fail instantly, but I would still have a commitment to the organisation to follow through with the (unpaid) project.

This could go wrong in so many ways.

Onto other things, I've heard people having a whinge about Jacko's death getting so much media coverage, while old Joe Bloggs who just died in a car accident gets a single sentence on page 88 in the newspaper.

Listen up everyone:
Michael Jackson did have people all over the world who either loved him for his music, or loved him for whatever he achieved as a person, etc. It makes sense to provide large scale coverage of his death. Meanwhile, I'm sure the news of poor old Joe Bloggs death reached all of the people that mattered to Joe Bloggs and his family.

My Grandpa died last November. Everyone I grew up with was there, and people turned up that my dad hadn't seen since he was a kid. And that's what it comes down to, the people who really mattered knew about it.

This brings up something else I just thought of. I remember one person saying to my Grandma at the funeral, something like: they had been reading the newspaper and saw the notice for his funeral. Do people read the obituaries everyday, scanning for names they might know? That's kind of weird. I wonder if I'll ever be that person.

Actually this isn't something I wanted to think about.

Someone asked on punknews last week, "Who is your favourite blues singer? And Chuck Ragan doesn't count." And somebody replied "Jake and Elwood". Of course. I just had to go and download the Blues Brothers after that. What a great movie. And the song used in the opening scene, and the fact that it is in Chicago, reminds me of Brendan Kelly.
Did you know Paul Shaffer was part of the Blues Brothers, but he couldn't be in the movie. Paul Shaffer, as in the band leader on David Letterman and also a minor role in This Is Spinal Tap. That's kinda weird.

Anyway, now I'm just rambling on.

Alright.

.

RIP Samantha Jane Dorsett

She co-founded Plan-It-X Records, the label responsible for the folk-punk and anarcho punk movement and also Against Me's early releases.

PIX Records have remained an extreme DIY label, always. And as much distaste I have for 'PIX kids' who seem to take everything to extremes, Chris and Sam always seemed cool.

It's important to keep in mind that, in independent culture, record labels play a huge part in music. Often you can tell what a punk band is all about just by what record labels they are associated with. Not just a faceless corporation that pushes money towards distributors, or sends 'talent scouts' looking for bands to pick up and cash-in on. And PIX were the label that was releasing music on burned cd's and silk-screening their own album covers, whatever it took to get their friends music out.

.

I've spoken about the Larry Arms before, but sometimes Chris sings the songs instead of Brendan, and it's almost like a different band.

Nebraska (the song of today's title) is not only the best 'Chris' song, but also one of the best songs I've ever heard. (This song is on the Cocktails and Dreams compilation album).

The big difference between Chris and Brendan is that Brendan has that orgcore, gravelly voice, while Chris has a smoother, relaxed voice, but it can still be very intense when he starts screaming.
Kind of like the difference between drinking beer and drinking rum* (replace with your favourite smooth-tasting spirit).

Anyway. I've been on holiday for about 2 weeks, maybe 2 and a half, I've lost track.

I know uni starts again on 20th July, but I've just lost track of all time and space around me.

Most days are spent lying on the ground with my mp3 player on random.

Today was hte first time I've showered in 2 weeks. And I've been wearing the same clothes for as long. I'll probably also shave this afternoon, after looking like a hobo the entire time.

Yesterday I left my apartment for the first time in ages, and ended up buying juice and milk, but not really any food aside from noodles.

I also applied for a job. Which is kind of a lose-lose situation. I'm not ready to start working again yet, but this opportunity wasn't going to come around again and I knew I'd regret it if I didn't at least try for it. But I'm not really sure if there is a position or not, just some inside information that they might be looking for someone soon.

That's about it for me.

Oh, fucking Thought Riot, I should talk about them next time. They kick ass.

The Bouncing Souls are straight up the happiest band of all-time. Their songs usually revolve around: hanging out with mates, getting drunk, having fun or some other super-positive activities. And they always look like they're having the time of their life while they're playing.

Their last album was a bit of a miss, but this year they are releasing one song for download every month, and every three months they put out a 7" with the last three songs + 1 bonus song. At the end of the year it is a full album worth of material. The songs so far have been really cool.

But of course I'm going to mention what is, to me, their best album. I might have this opinion because the album was released about 3 weeks after I finished high school, I was spending every day hanging out with Alisha (which was awesome at the time), she loved the Bouncing Souls by the way, and when I think about this album it just brings up a million and one great memories. For this reason it will forever be burned into my top five albums of all time.

This album is 2003's Anchors Aweigh. The thing about it though, it wasn't typical Bouncing Souls. It wasn't the fun, poppy 'smiles-and-laughs' fest that the Souls normally deliver. The songs seem darker, lyrically and musically, and even the album cover was in black and dark shades of green/blue. However, it's not depressing, it still makes you feel awesome. And I think that's something only the Souls could pull off.

So, yah, it's been a long time since I posted here. Mainly because my last post felt like one of the greatest memories I'll ever have and I couldn't be fucked writing this anymore. But here I am anyway.

Airport project finished last week. We presented to about 15 people form Melbourne Airport, and chris was an embarrassment. But it felt like David, Sandra and myself kicked some ass. So in the end, I'm happy with the way things went down.

Our last exam was last week as well. As usual, we got drunk at the Royal Melbourne, and by 'we', I mean 'I'. Everyone else seemed much more sober. But I feel justified that I have plenty of reasons to drink.

I have spent too much money though. I was broke last week, after getting my money on Friday and paying off my debts I'm still very broke.

None More Black's This Is Satire is finally coming out on vinyl after 4 years. This album I haven't even listened to yet. I've just been waiting for the record to come. So for me it is just like having a brand new NMB album.

I also pre-ordered Against Me!'s The Original Cowboy. Which is the demo's of all the songs on The Eternal Cowboy, so I already know it kicks ass, the only real question will be how raw sounding the recording are.

And aside from all that, I'm now on holiday until late July. But I do need to get started on my Science Project. As far as I know, it should be as simple as some Occupational Hygiene monitoring or something. I'm sure Corey can hook me up with some work. So not worried about it.

Alright.

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I still can't stop thinking about seeing Chuck and Tom last week. That show will be forever burned into my mind.

The feeling when Chuck screamed those first few lines of Wayfarer... just incredible. Moments I will never forget.

I don't think I've ever been able to relate to the song We Did It All For Don as much as I do now. AND Tom actually played it that night too. Fucking blown away.

So, a quick run down of what I've been up to:

• My parents came down on Friday
• Hanging out with them on Saturday
• Managed to miss meeting up with Alicia Ardern on Saturday night (it couldn't be helped, just really bad timing, but it still sucks)
• I got a bird for my birthday

It's actually really hard having a pet. In Candelo you could just let pets wander around anywhere and do what they like. In the city you really have to put in effort to look after them. But it's such a beauty.

In other news. The airport project. Crashed and burned, and I'm not going down in a tail of flames.

I spent the last week working on my section of the report, as agreed at a group meeting several weeks ago. The report we have resembles nothing of what I wanted to produce, or David or Sandra, and we have Newnham to thank for it. Him and his stupid lit reviews and blocks of text... I'm sorry, did I say 'blocks of text'? I meant WALLS-OF-FUCKING-TEXT!!!

This report will be useless to any organisation, and I think we'll be lucky to get a pass out of it. I've also written up my feelings in journal form for Sandra to add to our group journal. And Newnham will NOT be editing it before we submit our final package. I'll make sure of this.

In the meantime, I'm going to have a 1 in the morning shower and then fall asleep while listening to Chuck Ragan.
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I saw Chuck Ragan and Tom Gabel 2 nights ago, at the Corner Hotel in Richmond. Easily one of the best shows ever.

First Darren Gibson played some songs, and I actually knew a couple of them, so it was cool. Darren Gibson is the singer of a Melbourne band called Lead Sketch Union, who I've only seen once, but I must say he is MUCH better playing folk punk.

Then Chuck and Tom came out and played a song together, then flipped a coin and Chuck was playing first. A lot of the people (18 year olds) didn't seem to know the songs, but they would cheer everytime he started playing a Hot Water Music song. The place really got crazy when he played Wayfarer (amazing), The Boat (awesome) and finished with For Broken Ears (kickass).

The Tom came out and played probably about 15 songs. A few new ones, some great old ones and maybe one song from New Wave (in fact the song was New Wave). He played Armageddon and We Did It All For Don and Tonight We're Gonna Give It 35% which is all awesome. Although 35% didn't get much reaction from the 18 year olds, despite it being considered their best song by so many people.

Chuck came back on and they played some more songs together. Then they were going to play a two song encore, but I was too  fucked and headed to the back to watch from there. But Chuck did play Bleeder, which was amazing.

Now, the bad part. Despite there being so many 18 year old girls, they were actually quite into it, with fists in the air and singing along. very much unlike what I have seen in the past (it was actually a bunch of the 18 year old guys standing there holding onto their crazy girlfriends who looked bored, bunch of fucking wusses).

But the problem here was  not the lack off crowd participation by these girls, so much as how they did it. There was no solidarity at all. Which is just wrong for anything involving Tom Gabel (hence the title of today's post). When Tom started to play Those Anarcho Punx.. you could feel the whole atmosphere of the show change (and if you know anything about Against Me you know what I am talking about), and with the level of emotion coming from that song and how much it means to Against Me fans you tend to get carried away.

So, like I have done everytime I've seen Against Me, I put my arms around the people on either side of me and start screaming along til my throat feels like it's bleeding, but on one side the girl pushes me away, and on the other side the girl's boyfriend pushes me away. Of course I had to shove him in the ribs with an elbow because people like that SHOULDN'T BE AT A FOLK PUNK SHOW!!! To the second girl's credit, she was cool and she would just look at me and smile, but her boyfriend was an idiot.

I remember back when I was 19 - 21, for those few moments that you are watching the greatest band in the world, everyone in the room is your best friend. How could things change so much in just a few years? This proves that every younger step in our generation just gets more and more fucked up. How can you not be at a show like this and feel anything but love and respect for everyone you come into contact with?

No fucking solidarity I tell you.