Sydders Fest wrap-up

Oh my. So good. Sydney in summertime.

Grizzly bear on Thursday night was everything I wanted. Possibly more. The audience was lovely. They knew their shit, were polite and filled the recital hall with good vibes. It was clear that the boys appreciated the warmth of their applause. There were no stupid kids calling out in the middle of songs, no loud horrible singing, and no requests...just a room full of cultured, calm music lovers.

Image courtesy of Bernard Zuel's review in the SMH Read it here.

I did have to chuckle when the girls in front of me pulled out their bottle of vodka and sipped quietly from the bottle cap. Funny how much classier it seems when we're all grown ups with rents to pay or mortgages to consider.

Oh and was it only me who couldn't help but take a sneaky look at Tim Freedman in rows in front? Man, that man only gets hotter with age. Surely. So Sydney.

Then I managed to make it to another show, The Books, 2 guys out of the US who thrift tapes and records. Anything from answering machine tapes, kids self recordings to spoken word and self help records. They then put these together, play live guitars, cello and vocals over the top and perfectly match them with old school video collages. Some straight from VHS complete with the lines across the middle. So sweet. Oh and they encored with the cover of the Nick Drake song that they recorded for the Dark Was The Night charity compilation last year with Jose Gonzales.And how cute is their website front page?

So good. Sydney in summertime is super!

Back order for 10 months

So...in april last year, when people were having babies, I decided to get the perfect gift for some friends of mine. It's a compilation curated by indie twee pop Scots Belle and Sebastian called Colours are Brighter. Read about it here. With songs from Flaming Lips, Franz Ferdinand and Snow Patrol they've got titles like "Go Ninja Dinosaur" and "The Monkeys Are Breaking Out Of The Zoo". So good. And it's finally in stock. Only 10 months later. When I'd forgotten about it. Oh well, better late than never, hey.

A view from the bridge

I saw this quintessential Arthur Miller play the other week. In New York. With Scarlett Johansson and Liev Schriber. Yep. Not often you can say that, hey. That's why I did. And it was amazing. Truly amazing performances. No gimmicks and celebrities winging it on their popularity. Amazing actors.

Check out some great photos of Liev and Scarlett here.

Sydders Festy

For the first time in a long time I'm in the country for the Sydney Festival. Not in Sydney mind you, but close enough to make it to see Grizzly Bear on Thursday night.

Having spent the past three weeks in New York and some of that time wandering the streets of Brooklyn (where the "Bear" are from) I am even more excited.

Tickets sold out sooooo quickly, as always, but due to an extra show being put on I get to see this one.

Other things I'd love to see if it wasn't so damn expensive:

The Rogues Gallery with Marianne Faithful, Tim Robbins, Blasko, Katy Steele, Peaches, Glenn Richards.

The Rev Al Green

The Dirty Three

Anyway, one year at a time.

By the way, how good is the ad for the Festival. I am so loving that Middle East song and the images of the yellow balloon around the city. See it here. Can you pick where each shot comes from?

January tasks

Two days before going back to work. Things must be done. I think it's a hangover from my days back at school when the ritual before starting a new year was to buy new books, clean out the school bag, let down the hem of the school uniform and sharpen the pencils.

After much deliberation I bought my diary for 2010.

Did I fully utilise the lovely Moleskine one I bought for 2009? No, I probably wrote a grand total of 10 pages...

What about the traditional black Kikki K of 2008 and 2007? Nup, not much better...

But still I can't start the year without handing over the 20-30 bucks for a lovely leather bound journal to stash in my bag for the duration of the year. With each new diary comes new dreams to be organised. To be creative. To be that girl who pulls out her diary at the cafe while waiting for a friend and composes a poem, or sketches a picture or plans the day when she will rule the world.

One can only try. This year I went back to the Kikki K, I was lured by the lovely shade of apple green. What do you think?

Photo courtesy of Kikki K.