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[26 Sep 2009|11:41pm] |
Man, you know you got it tough when the dilemma du jour is whether or not you should go ahead and subscribe to the 2010 Sydney Theatre Company season. Seriously though, Blanchett doing Chekhov and Phillip Seymour Hoffman directing "True West"!
Also, sign number 2 it's a hard knock life - using the ridiculous phrase dilemma du jour. Watch out Diablo Cody!
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[13 Jun 2009|11:22pm] |
Oh man.... fuck you Triple J. Picking my top ten songs of all time is really really really hard. I'll think I have a decent list shaping up and then I'll realise, "Oh shit.... what about Blondie or Arcade Fire?" or "HOW CAN I PICK ONLY 1 DYLAN SONG?". And then there are the horror thoughts of The Presets getting into the top ten and that the whole Rick-rolling campaign they're running will actually work. (Seriously, though... Rick-rolling? In 2009? When we have entered the era of Keyboard Cat? QUESTION MARK?!)
Chris Taylor feels my pain. Also, appearing on "First Tuesday Bookclub" wearing glasses x his list = fail-proof way to be voted number one on my top ten crushes of all time! Also, that sentence = me being voted number one at being the worst! EVERYONE GOES HOME A WINNER!
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| I won't mention the 26 week silence if you won't.... |
[08 May 2009|10:43pm] |
So last night the Karen's 28th Birthday Extravaganza Week of Non-Stop Celebrating came to a worthy conclusion at the Annandale, witnessing the power and the glory that is Okkervil River.
I distinctly remember the why's and wherefore's and how's of first hearing Okkervil River. Obviously I don't have a very solid grasps on timelines because I was convinced last night that I'd heard them 10 years ago but "Don't Fall in Love With Everyone You See" was only released in 2002 so who know what lost year of mine it actually was. But anyway, the when is hardly ever the point. The point is that it was via the beautiful hand drawn website of a lovely boy writer that I found myself mp3s of "Red" and "Westfalls" (and also Beulah and a whole host of Elephant 6 sunniness - thanks sadly defunct website!). Those songs hit me in the heart and the gut in completely different ways and still manage to. So, it was wonderful to hear Okkervil River close their set with a barnstorming version of "Westfalls" just like the first time I saw them live but it was even more special to hear a halting quavering solo arrangement of "Red". I didn't adore it but I appreciated it, and while I was still thinking of a 10 years younger version of myself hearing the same song, I tried desperately hard to be more mentally gentle to the 10 years younger bright young things around me.
I am 100% absolutely postively completely sure that when I was 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, probably right up till a month or so ago, that I would stand at concerts with Charlotte swooning over boys in bands, smugly convinced they would play the list of songs I'd begged for 28 times on their guestbook, shouting wide-eyed OMG! this song was totally my favourite/best ever song and throwing my hands in the air with squeals and cheers and mouthing along (at least I had enough graciousness in that most ungracious of periods to hardly ever ACTUALLY sing along). And so while the two girls next to me last night checked off every item on that list I tried to remember that thinking they were utterly ridiculous was every so pot kettle black and completely unfair to the over enthusiastic but so completely sincere girl I once was.
But I am sure, even with my history of ridiculous talent-trumps-all crushes, that I still never would have referred to Will Sheff (brilliant though he may be) as having "sex eyes".
Kids today - they just don't get it.
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[05 Nov 2008|08:02pm] |
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Hey America, good work you guys!
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[24 Sep 2008|09:18pm] |
Dear Emmys,
Less horrible horrible 5 hosts schtick, more nominations for the ladies of "Mad Men" please. This should include an Emmy for Best at Being The Most Awesome Ever for Christina Hendricks. Also, less being aired on a Sunday night when a new episode of "Mad Men" should have been on but wasn't in deferrence to your parade of general awfulness.
Thanks you guys!
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[03 Sep 2008|09:55pm] |
Also, this, before it just got weird (about half way down the page), reminded me that I'm going to go here to watch The Muppet Movie. The viewing of which will be proceeded by a visit here to drink this.
Hooray!
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[03 Sep 2008|09:15pm] |
Haiku Review! Part Deux!
Edge of Love
On my To Do List:
Find a forties red lipstick.
No, really, that's all.
I had a free ticket to see this movie. What's your excuse paying public?
What did work: a close friendship between two women based on a foundation of mutual fear and resentment and built up to a high pitch intensity as a way of disguising/denying that basis. If you were a girl and, you know, weren't homeschooled for primary school or high school you will totally get that sort of relationship - the best friend you actually hated.
And Cillian Murphy.
What didn't work: everything else. Especially the accents. My god, the accents.
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[27 Aug 2008|06:26pm] |
I'm so so behind on this that I've actually had to climb into a Delorian and am now writing this post from the 0.5 second moment in time when people actually might have given thought to this. (NB. It's so different back here in the past, you guys! GRAVY CRISPS AREN'T EVEN AVAILABLE IN STORES!)
So, anyway, it's the Pussycat Dolls song "When I Grow Up". Let's just set aside for the moment the massively disturbing part of the equation wherein this song made me realise that the target demographic for the Pussycat Dolls are pre-teen girls. I mean, that is what really should annoy me about this song. But what gets me is that these are grown women using the word boobies. I just get stuck on that point and then get all these imaginary scenarios playing through my head of what exactly happened in the studio when they were handed the lyrics sheet and told, "This is your new single. Get in the booth and sing". Did they question it at all or did they just let the thought of their impending fat paychecks soothe any qualms they might have as 30+ year olds using a word I haven't heard anyone over the age of 5 use? Or does this mean I'm entirely wrong about their demographic? Have I pitched them too high? Are the singing strippers, in fact, setting themselves up as role models for kindergartners? And where's the outraged Christian right/won't somebody think of the children?! lobby on this one? I'm looking at you Hetty Johnson! I guess they're all still busy boarding up art galleries.
Uhmm.
So.
I just thought I'd pull up the lyrics to see what other things are in the song that I could get grumpy about and you'll never guess what. They're not using the word boobies at all! They're actually saying groupies. Whoops, is there egg on my face or what?
Oh wait, they are still awful and the song is still awful x 2.
This is called a win-win situation. Except we all lose because the song is still number 5 on the Australian singles charts.
Anti-lol. :(
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[17 Aug 2008|05:00pm] |
Things Shane Did Not Do Yesterday At The Snow For My Vicarious Pleasure
01. Start a snowball fight.
02. Build a snowman.
03. Take out a small child in a comical fashion whilst careening down the hill on his snowboard.
He did, however, fall off the ski lift mid-ride. So, points for entertainment effort I guess.
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[15 Aug 2008|08:17pm] |
I have a ridiculously massive crush on Gabe Delahaye. You do too. If you think you don't, you're just repressing. Embrace it!
Anyway. I was going to write a short history of my Past Ridiculous Secret CrushesTM but, whatever, I'm waiting for a new Friday Fight to be posted. It is Friday today in the land of Videogum right?
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[10 Aug 2008|12:44pm] |
In a weekend of having been sick, weak, sick, miserable and sick; they decided to redefine kicking a gal when she's down.
Great Escape has been cancelled.
I was excited about the line up. I was excited about having Clubhouse tickets (access to slightly nicer toilets!). I was excited about October and it being warm but not Big Day Out ridiculous hot and drinks on the grass and train trips back to a comfortable hotel room each night (because I'm too old and spoilt for camping). AND I HAD PLANNED A WHOLE LONG WEEKEND AROUND IT. I got tickets to the First Tuesday Bookclub filming with Brendan Cowell (two stalkings in one filming!), got an extra days leave and now.... blah. Or more fittingly for this weekend, bleeeergh.
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[28 May 2008|09:10pm] |
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Cannonball Days - Ryan Adams |
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I just realised that the last thing I wrote here was "OMG OMG OMG THERE WILL BE BLOOD"
Therefore, for your reading pleasure, haiku review!
There Will Be Blood
Lost kids but not quite.
Watch out! Plainview's totally
drinking your milkshake.
It left me a bit empty and completely torn. I think it has a lot to do with what I love so very very much about P.T. Anderson's other films, which is how achingly vulnerable and human he lets his characters be and how tender he is towards them. There was no humanity in Plainview. Also his stories are about the dysfunctionality of blood ties, particularly how completely parents misunderstand their children, and how we can create our own families outside of those traditional arrangements. The movie did pick up that line. And it was gripping and stuck in my brain. Still is a bit I think. But I'm a ridiculous melodramatic emotional bag of emotions and it didn't touch my heart. And that's where it counts with me.
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| Do not leave me dancing me alone |
[28 May 2008|08:41pm] |
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What Were The Chances? - Damian Jurado |
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This is the circle of life shit they weren't singing about in "The Lion King". Cut and paste last year to this year. House hunting again and still treading water in my job where the one good thing about it is that I'm still plowing my through some fine pieces of writing thanks to e-books generally looking like the reports and other pages of words words words words words that it seems to be my duty to always have on my screen looking thoughtfully at.
(if we didn't have a very distinctive style template for our powerpoint presentations, I'd totally be using <a href="http://www.readatwork.com>Read at Work</a>. How awesome is that??)
I promise though that this isn't woe is me sook sook sook. I'm yet another year older now and I'm determined to accept my life 1. is what it is, 2. is all my own doing and, 3. all mine to change. I'm have a couple of applications out and I'm keeping faith that we will find a perfect little house with a perfect little garden that we can have our perfect little future puppy in. (He will be a beagle and his name will be Digby - mostly so I can chase him around the yard while singing the Sir Digby Chicken Caeser theme song).
And anyway, it's hard to be full of self-pity when you're quietly enamoured of a new haircut that is FINALLY what you asked for. Cut my hair stupid once, shame on you Former Hair Salon. Completely disregard what I ask for twice in a row, shame on me. Not only did I finally haul myself into a proper salon to get said lovely new haircut - it all happened in tandem with a 10 minute head massage IN A VIBRATING CHAIR. We really do live in the lucky country. Who can be sad when their scalp and arse are simultaneously being kneaded?
[Answer: no one]
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[09 Feb 2008|03:56pm] |
There Will Be a trip the cinema shortly!
I am so excited to see "There Will Be Blood". I've been carrying around a flyer for it in my handbag for weeks now. It has a review on it from I don't know Vanity Fair or something but I'm in the sort of excited tizz that means I have to flick quickly through newspapers or scroll across any website that might have anything to say about the film. I've seen the trailer and that's all I want to come to the movie with. This means that in my head at the moment it sits somewhere between "Giant" and "Written on the Wind". Which would actually make for a pretty awesome film regardless. And I'm not sure I can think of anyone today besides Anderson who so beautifully and so consistently tells stories of lost children and family dynamics.
Anyway. Psyched. Totally.
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| The lions and the lambs ain't sleeping yet |
[02 Feb 2008|08:09pm] |
I don't appreciate the reverse countdown that I see each time I log in telling me how long it's been since I last posted. Because what it really says is "LAZY! BORING! LAAAAZY!".
The same as the piles of clothes kicked all over the bedroom floor and the dishes piled up in the sink. Same as not going to the coast with Shane this weekend but not doing anything essential or even mildly interesting here at home.
WAIT, HALT THE PRESSES! You can strike the last part of that last sentence. Whilst sitting here sighing with ennui and gazing out the window with extreme soul burning intensity, "Mr Roboto" just came on. Cue inspired and brilliant interpretative (READ: crap robot) dancing around the spare room.
(If you're having trouble visualising... click)
Because, yes, Arcade Fire are heart explosifyingly brilliant and their show at the Enmore the other week was undoubtedly one of the best concerts I've ever been to, but when they're not making you punch the air (see also: "Ibi Dreams of Pavement" by BSS and if you can tell me you seriously do not get even the slightest urge to either do some sort of scissor kick or even a judo chop when the tension breaks then you must be dead inside), they can make you morose. TRUE FACT (prepare your mind cause it's about to get blown with the following powerful piece of insight) - examples of exceptional talent can make you feel a bit crap about your ordinariness and inability to play 50 thousand instruments and speak with a French accent and live in Montreal.
I forgot what my point was. Modren! LOL forevz. <3<3<3
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[11 Dec 2007|09:59pm] |
Oh bless.
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| the weight of bricks on bricks |
[30 Nov 2007|08:26pm] |
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It's all rumble black and flash outside tonight. I love night rain. When I was small and scared of storms, I would scurry across to my sister's room where she would shush and soothe the thunder down like it was a tantrum throwing toddler. I really did believe that she was in control of it all somehow. Or at least I believed that she had some sort of unexplained and inexplicable connection to the clouds and the sky and the rain that meant no matter how bad it got, we would be okay. We'd be safe, her and I.
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[26 Nov 2007|04:01pm] |
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HOORAY x 28!
Ding dong the witch is dead.
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[13 Nov 2007|02:48pm] |
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I love westerns. I love their grandness. Stories of conflict (cowboys vs indians, chaos vs civilization, myth vs reality, struggle for identity) played out against desolate landscapes under endless rolling skies. I saw "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" last night. I'd say that, not just as a western but just as a film, it's fairly close to perfect. It's such a lonely and stunningly beautiful film. Oscars Oscars Oscars. If you don't love this film, you probably have something broken in your heart and your head. Go get that checked out. No, really, I'm worried about you.
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