tales from an ordinary world
1999-07-01
Well, she's gone. The last minute uncertainty was all sorted out (her new employers didn't seem particularly organized with respect to getting her ticket - it almost looked like they'd missed the deadline and she wouldn't be going just yet after all...) and we took her to the airport this morning. So yeah. She's gone. I spent the rest of the day wandering around trying to work out how I was feeling about everything. *shrug*. But I'll cope. I bought some books. I bought some CDs, one of which was something called Assorted Creams by the Orange Humble Band, who had this fantastically poppy song called Down in your dreams that I'd heard a few times on the radio. Listening to that kinda cheered me up a bit...
1999-07-02
Having just bought a book of Paul Kelly's lyrics, I was pondering a Very Important Issue. Back in high school, my comic-reading friends (Scod, Chi, Lee, etc.) often used to argue about "who would win in a fight between Spiderman and the Hulk"*. So therefore, dear readers, I pose you this question - In the battle for songwriting supremacy and general music cred in this fine country of ours, who do you think would win - Ed Kuepper or Paul Kelly ?
* this being the Hulk when he'd turned grey, and nastier. Or so I'm told...
1999-07-03
Remember when toothpaste used to be just plain white ? And you didn't have so many choices ?
Nepalese for dinner, then a film, Living Out Loud, which had a level of bitterness and cynicism that I actually quite enjoyed...
1999-07-04
In a fit of geekness, that list of CDs on the front page is auto-generated from my canonical list-o'-CDs...and the CD shop list on my music page. Then Mr Stillwell reminded me of this. Oh well. I remain unrepentant - If I'd wanted a webpage that was entirely useful, I'd still be scratching my head thinking of what to put there. Of course, I haven't actually put up my whole list yet, so I hope you all remain suitably afraid...
1999-07-06
Last week I let Nate talk me into doing a very quick talk about MP3 software for Linux, so I hacked up something quickly that might be useful to someone. Who knows ?
So yeah, I rolled up to the LUV meeting tonight and did the talk. OF course, I did all the things I usually do wrong, like talking to fast and not looking at the crowd too much. Bugger it.
1999-07-09
So I finally end up seeing Austin Powers 2, mostly by chance, although that's always how I end up seiing films...And afterwards, we wandered down Chapel St, stopped in a few bars for a drink - I felt kinda guilty 'cause A. was driving and hence not drinking, but she didn't seem to mind.
1999-07-10
Happy Birthday Mum. I wander out to buy her the best of Paul Kelly CD, which she'd indicated interest in. I'd figured that if I was going to buy a CD full-price, I'd buy it somewhere good, somewhere with some sort of cred. So I ended up handing over my $30 at Cosmos down in St Kilda. Maybe I'm just a sucker, who knows ?
1999-07-12
What an odd day. I ran into, was called by, or otherwise heard from at least 6 random friends today, some of whom I hadn't heard from in ages. Cool or what ?
1999-07-13
I'm calm, but restless. Electr-o-Pura makes more sense now. I'm reminded of The Fall of Rome, but I forget why. Push me, pull me.
1999-07-14
Whilst passing time before my haircut appointment, I popped into a second-hand music shop and found, for all of $8, an old Mark Shreeve CD I remember seeing 9 years ago for $50. Man, was I happy :P
Mark Shreeve is...well...the embodiment of 80's electronic music. Plastic sounds. Synthetic everything - I spotted a real guitar on one track, the rest of it was all synthetic guitars, saxes, brass, and so on. It's pure nostalgia, and the only reason I ever heard his stuff in the first place was thanks to a wonderful little show on 3PBS-FM called the Electronic Influence that I've got about 30 cassettes of recorded stuff from. It finished up many years ago, and introduced me to all sorts of music, from the prog-rock heroes like Yes, through electronic wizards like Tangerine Dream to industrial bands like Skinny Puppy. There was even a fair bit of local stuff played from time to time - one of the presenters was one Darrin Verhagen, who still puts out interersting music these days.
1999-07-16
So I went out drinking with Tom to the Elwood Lounge, where the 750mL VB bottles are sensibly priced (perhaps). Fine, everything's fine. We move on to the city, to visit Elly at a punk-girl thing called Oxide. Little did I know that it was upstairs from Abyss, where various goth (or goth-compatible) people I knew were, of course, in attendance. A collision of worlds. What to do ? Even weirder was when I left, another world came into play when an old ex-housemate of mine from 1996 was inexplicably hanging around the entrance, chatting to the doorman. He's certainly not the Abyss (or Oxide) type...The world's too small.
1999-07-17
What do you do on the weekend when you're trying to avoid spending money ? I walked around the city for a while, and came along Swanston St. Upstairs, Café Sahara had its windows open, and I couldn't turn that down - a bird's eye view of the world - trams, kids on skateboards, etc. As usual, I'm the Observer. I do nothing. I don't have to. But somehow, I get the feeling that this whole Passive Lifestyle thing's wearing me down.
1999-07-18
Sitting quietly outside the only café in my part of Glenhuntly Rd that's open on a Sunday, some kid comes up and asks if I can spare a smoke. Yeah, here you go. He sits down and we make random sporadic conversation. He's a bit short on cash, he tells me. Heroin, you know. It's either that or a job. Gotta kick the habit first. We chat about a few other random things, I buy him a coffee (hell, I was having one anyway) and we part company. I can't say we really hit it off, but he seemed ok enough.
Still, it makes me wonder about the Bigger PictureTM. I often end up talking to and sometimes becoming friends with all sorts of odd people, for reasons which escape me. I'm not complaining - quite the opposite. But how does it happen ? Tom and the whole 3MU thing are another fine example of this phenomenon. I mean, in all these cases, I never really feel like I'm their type. Of course, I don't really know whose type I am - all these different groups of friends I have - it's hard to lay claim to one particular group and say "yeah, that's what I am". Am I greater than the sum of my parts ?
1999-07-19
It's another introspective rainy night as I head home on the tram. The seats are more or less full, so I stand in the unused doorway, making my eyes do weird things with the images I see of the road going past just outside. A girl sitting behind me, with her art supplies neatly stacked between her and the wall, is reading a book about "The Art of Loving" or somesuch. I wonder what she's learning ?
Nobody's home when I get there. Just the cd changer and some Cointreau to keep me company. Luna, then Pavement drift through the lounge. It's a quiet night. I wish someone were here, but I'm not really sure who.
1999-07-25
After a thoroughly downbeat Saturday, I ended up visiting my parents for a Restorative Sunday Roast lunch. Nana and Uncle Bernie came along too, so it ended up being a bit of a family thing, which was fine. I feel a lot better now (but maybe it's just the wine talking). I borrowed the Monaco CD off Jo again, and now that Lee's gone off to see a film (or whatever). I can play it loud in the lounge without disturbing him. The music's doing the healing thing too, as it often does...Filling one's head with sounds to stop reminding one about what a totally crap Saturday one had. But there you go. At least it's working. I really do feel good now, at peace with the world, and all that kind of stuff. I'm relaxed and philosphical. This is a Good ThingTM.
1999-07-27
Hrm. It's a fine week. Everything's fine. Work's fine. My head's fine. Not perfect, obviously, but it's all very...middle of the road. I really ought to save these sorts of weeks up for when I need them more.
Dawson's Creek somehow made it onto the TV (look, I don't drive the remote control, ok ?). I notice that, from certain angles, Dawson could almost be another Morrissey. Bizarro.
1999-07-28
There's a lunar eclipse happening. It's kind of cool, but space no longer interests me in the same way it did when I was Much Younger. Why is that ? I happily sucked in all the sci-fi/fantasy books I could get my hands on, and firmly believed, like most others, that by the time 2001 came up we'd be up on that space station like Arthur C. Clarke said. But instead, I'm sitting here earthbound, looking up at the moon partly covered by the earth's shadow, with a glass of wine and the Underground Lovers playing on our office speaker system. And somehow, I'm not particularly bothered by this. Hell, I'm feeling relaxed. Perhaps I just let the mundanity of normal life cloud the inspiration that would have driven me into space ? Like Burroughs said (quoting Gysin), "what are we here for ? We're here to go !". Mankind, he says, was born to move into space, and it's only the shits holding us back...
1999-07-30
We had a work dinner thing at the Isthmus of Kra, a Thai restaurant within walking distance from work. As it turned out, we had to go back afterwards and finish off the monthly software release, but it all worked out and we sat around drinking and stuffing around while we finished it off.
1999-07-31
Stephen Cummings has a new album out, so I went and bought it in Malvern and walked all the way home with it in my discman. Wandering around Caulfield Park to let it all sink in, I stood in the gazebo, watched the geese, and slowly walked home.
Later on, I sat on the couch and read an issue of Giant Robot that Droo lent me. A small amount of it made sense, and fortunately I knew one or two of the bands they interviewed, but I guess I'm just not hip enough to grok much of the asian-american subculture thing.
*shrug*. I'm bored.
