Halibut Threesome

4:18pm: That's a lot of albums
As some of you may know, I use a site called rateyourmusic to catalogue my collection and rate/review albums I've heard.

Yesterday, my "Albums Rated" tally passed the 1000 mark.

I've listened to over 1000 complete albums. I'm rather chuffed about that milestone.

(actually, there's probably a few singles, eps and compilations in that tally, so it'd be closer to 950ish in truth, but it's still neat seeing the figure tick over into 4 digits)

2:54pm: Game meme thingy
1) Look at the list and bold those you have played
2) Underline the games you LOVE.
3) Reprint this list in your own LJ so we can try and track down these people who've played 6 and force games (and probably emulators) upon them.

I've added some annotations in brackets where necessary.

( listy )

So many awesome games missing. Some day soon I shall do an awesometacular favourite games list.

8:53am: Supanova
Tina and I went along to Supanova on Sunday, and had a great time. I'm really glad they've decided to bring the event to Perth, because it's filled a nice niche that was previously unaccounted for. Essentially, I found Supanova to be a bit like SwanCon, except with the proportions devoted to panels and to other stuff (market day type stuff and media stuff) reversed. So two small panel streams, that were predominantly guest Q&As, and a whole massive stack of stalls, gaming, screenings, etc. They even had a wrestling ring set up for the AWF (Australian Wrestling Federation - I didn't even know we had a Wrestling Federation!).

I only went to two panels - the Q&As with Ben Templesmith and Nichelle Nichols. Both of those were really enjoyable, and they both proved to be lovely, friendly, entertaining guests. I meant to go along to the Jewel Staite one as well, but my timing was off and by the time I got there they'd filled the room and closed the doors. Oh well, not the end of the world.

The wrestling was hilariously entertaining. The first guys out seemed to be the crappy, "warm up the crowd" opening act, and were extremely lame, but after that there were some reasonably skilled wrestlers. In a "sport" where everything is faked, you need to be convincing enough that your audience doesn't keep on going "Jesus that looked incredibly, obviously fake" every ten seconds. The first guys I watched failed spectacularly, but the second and third matches were really well done and very fun to watch. Funnily enough we don't seem to have any huge, muscular wrestlers like they do in the USA - we have big fat guys and skinny quick guys. Highlight of the day occurred when one of the latter was being thoroughly beaten, and someone in the crowd yelled "FIGHT BACK SKINNY MAN!" Gold.

We ended up spending lots of money. Kings Comics are insanely cheap (GNs are pretty much all in the $20-$30 range, a good $10-$20 cheaper than they tend to be at Quality Comics). We added to all the series we've been collecting, by picking up Preacher Vol 2, Transmet Vol 6, Fables Vol 2, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol 2 and Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse Vol 2. I got Ben Templesmith to sign my Wormwood GN (should've brought along Vol 1 from home, doh), and I was impressed when he very sincerely thanked us for buying one of his books, not just once but twice. He's clearly a guy who appreciates his fans, which is always nice to see in a guest.

We also bought a few DVDs from the Madman desk - The Chris Cunningham volume in the Directors Series, as well as 2 volumes of Samurai Jack. I also picked up an awesome Harvey Birdman shirt.

The one other thing worth noting was the utterly INSANE Gametraders stall. They were selling brand new games so far below rrp that it was ridiculous (eg. GTA4 on XBox 360 for $40). Unfortunately I only own a PS2 and a DS, and their selection for those wasn't so great, but I imagine they must have done plenty of business. I heard that they were also planning on making all remaining stock 50% off at the end of the day, just so they wouldn't have much to take away with them. I don't know if that eventuated, though, as I ended up leaving around 4pm or so.

And that was my Supanova adventure. Definitely a great day out. I'm already looking forward to Supanova 2009 :)

4:21pm: "You got me girl on the runaround, runaround..."
I seem to have turned into a full-blown Roxy Music fan.

12:06pm: Random super-quick album review
The Sonics - Here Are the Sonics!!! (1965)

The Sonics were one of the very first bands who could be classified under the umbrella of garage-rock, a scene that didn't really hit its stride until the early 70s. Some people have tagged them as "proto-garage", but that's really just a way of saying "these guys were kind of garage before garage was a commonly accepted genre". They're also credited as being the missing link between 50s rock & roll and 70s punk.

Here Are the Sonics!!! is the band's debut. I've been listening to it for a few months now, and it's quickly become on of my favourite albums. In all likelihood, the first thing you'll notice about this album is that it really doesn't sound like it belongs in 1965. Every track is infused with an ahead-of-its-time, hard-rocking aesthetic, and the band's playing style is incredibly loose and thrashy. The vocals are sung in the typical, upbeat style of the late 50s and early 60s, only with an incredibly edgy feeling of completely reckless abandon. The singing here is completely wild, often escalating into shouts and screams and wails that just rock out so damn much.

Most of the songs are covers of well-known tracks of the previous 10-15 years, updated into The Sonics' gleefully raw play-style. There's also three originals ("The Witch", "Psycho" and "Strychnine"), and barring the group's absolutely awesome take on "Have Love, Will Travel", these originals are arguably the best stuff on the record (although the quality is very high throughout).

Believe me when I say that this is garage-rock at its absolute sexiest. A showcase of ferocious energy that's so much fun to listen to. The whole package strikes just the right balance between addictive melody and deliciously noisy mayhem.

Oh, and as a side note - if you're a fan of modern garage-rock revival bands like The Hives, then you should consider this utterly essential listening. The Sonics might as well have invented them.

10:58am: Some mini-reviews
I've listened to a handful of interesting new albums recently. Here's some quick reviews.

Hieroglyphics - 3rd Eye Vision (1998)

Hieroglyphics are a hip-hop collective founded by Del Tha Funkee Homosapien (of "Mistadobolina" and Deltron 3030 fame). 3rd Eye Vision is their debut album. Like many hip-hop collective, the album plays out a lot like a whole bunch of emcees taking turns to try to out-rap one another, which is actually a hell of a lot of fun, if you can stomach all the self-aggrandising lyrics. While the 6 or 7 other members are all very competent, Del well and truly steals the show with his loose, slurred delivery. But what else would you expect a big Del fan to say?

Jandek - Ready for the House (1978)

Jandek is a very interesting character. He's been recording music since 1978 (this album being his debut), and over the last 30 years has released around 60-70 full-length albums, making him one of your more obscenely prolific artists. Up until recently, his identiy was also shrouded in mystery. No background information was known about him (including his name), his only means of contact were a PO Box, he'd only done 2 interviews (by phone, I'm guessing) and he distributed his music via his own record label, with the vast majority of distribution done via postage. A few years ago, he surprised everyone by playing his first ever live gig - an unannounced show, presumably because he wanted to have the escape plan of fading back into obscurity if the show didn't go well. Luckily, the music of Jandek manages to live up to the legend of Jandek. This is a very, very strange and interesting album. The entire album us constructed from haunting, bare guitar strums and plucks, combined with Jandek's bluesy, hollow-sounding delivery, making for a very eerie, sparse affair. And get this - I didn't realise until halfway through that the entire album is played entirely in one chord. That's right, there's no progressions. Only textures. It's actually very unnerving to listen to, as it establishes a mood and style in it's first few moments, and then doesn't waver from that aesthetic for the entire 45 minute running time.

Nara Leao - Nara Leão (1968)

Leão is one of the best-known Bossa-Nova artists out of Brazil, and she's still recording material to this day. This is one of her most highly acclaimed albums, and it trades off the swaying, catchy bossa style with some nice experimental touches. If you want a great example, check out the track "Mamãe, Coragem"

That'll do for now. I've listened to a few other bits and pieces recently, but I might leave those for another post.

1:00pm: New toys
Went shopping on Friday night and picked up a few things from Electronics Boutique:

Burnout 3: Takedown! (PS2) - I already own and dearly love Burnout 2, and I've been intending to buy the awesomely awesome Burnout Revenge ever since I hired it out and had my mind thoroughly blown. I wasn't really intending to buy this one, but seeing it at EBs for $12 was enough to convince me. Haven't played it yet, but looking forward to it. Still planning on buying Burnout Revenge anyway.

Metroid Prime Hunters (DS) - Really good fun, and surprisingly easy to control once you get accustomed to the whole "what the hell I'm playing a FPS with a stylus" factor. I like the fact that it's more of a FPE (E being for "Explorer"), with shooting bits scattered throughout. I've never been an especially huge fan of constant, no-time-to-stop-and-consider-things action (although there are exceptions), so the more controlled pace is nice. I keep dying at the final challenge of Level 1, which is annoying the hell out of me, but I've only had the game for 3 days, so I'm sure I'll get there eventually. Also, really looking forward to trying out the multiplayer mode, which I hear is fantastic.

Worms Open Warfare (DS) - It's worms, for the DS. Pretty much exactly like the PC version. Some would call this a negative ("Where's my extra content?"), but it's exactly what I was after anyway. I'm thinking some multiplayer will be in order at Terracon.

I also picked up the first volume of Fables, entitled Legends in Exile. I absolutely loved it - can't wait to read the next few volumes :)

11:53am: A pleasant surprise
Somehow I completely missed this until now, inattentive fanboy that I am. On July 8, Beck will be releasing a new album, entitled Modern Guilt. It's going to be produced by Danger Mouse (who, for the unaware, if 50% of Gnarls Barkley), with a couple of guest spots by Cat Power. From what I've read, it supposedly has a "60s British" sound to it, with comparisons to psych-pop/rock groups like the Zombies, only I suspect with a more updated, modern touch. Sounds intriguing.

I also read that he created the entire thing in a crazy, ten week binge of songwriting and recording. Beck was quoted as saying "I know I did at least 10 weeks with no days off, until four or five in the morning every night." Sounds .... intense.

New Beck! I can't wait to hear it :)

9:13am: Here he comes, here comes Speed Racer...
Speed Racer was brilliant. When I saw the trailer, I thought "That was great, but I only liked it because of the insane, 1000kmph pace - they can't possibly maintain that kind of feeling for an entire film. Hence, the film will be crap." I was very, very wrong.

The movie was funny, exciting and moving; it never took itself too seriously; it had just the right amount of "be true to yourself and the people most important to you" moralising; the casting was absolutely perfect in every way; the comedic scenes were hilarious; the characters were all immensely likeable; for once, the incredible overuse of cgi was warranted and actually helped amplify the cartoonish feeling of the film in all the right ways; the race scenes were nail-bitingly intense and a hoot to watch. Seriously, almost everything about this film was flat out perfect.

My only complaint was an awkward "kodak moment" scene between Speed and his mechanic they shoehorned into the latter stages of the movie, but an unnecessary 30 second scene isn't exactly the hugest of complaints.

Everyone who likes fun, family-oriented, action/adventure/comedy films should go see it. And by "go see it" I mean at the cinema - this movie is way too much of a visual spectacle to limit it to the small screen.

1:47pm: Money goes down, music collection goes up!
I'm running out of subject lines to use in these "CDs I Bought" posts...

Here's some recent purchases:

Talking Heads - The Name of This Band is Talking Heads
Roxy Music - Roxy Music
Elvis Costello - King of America
Faust - Faust IV
Jellyfish - Spilt Milk
Suede - Suede

I also picked up some vinyl off the JBHifi website - they're surprisingly cheap for records!

Joanna Newsom - Ys (mmmm delicious 2xLP gatefold)
Television - Marquee Moon

and still waiting for these ones to arrive...

The Microphones - It Was Hot We Stayed in the Water
My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
Nina Nastasia and Jim White - You Follow Me

I also visited a record store weekend-before-last, called Bowerbird Records in North Perth. I'd never even heard of the place before, even though it's been around for quite a while. They were mentioned on the net as being a pretty cool shop, so I decided to check them out. Definitely wasn't disappointed - they had a huge supply of 90s-and-earlier LPs, across a tonne of different genres, with loads of really interesting stuff. There was a 50% off sign positioned above a few boxes of records, but upon closer inspection I saw that those boxes were the $1 bargain bins, and 50% off that wouldn't make much sense. So I asked the guy exactly what the 50% off applied to.

"All of it. Everything in the shop."

OH YEAH. I ended up buying half a dozen records, all in quite good condition, for $50. There were more that I wanted, but I didn't want to go crazy with the spendage. Anyway, here's what I got...

Johnny Cash - Greatest Hits
Janis Joplin - Greatest Hits
Janis Joplin - Joplin in Concert
David Bowie - Scary Monsters
David Bowie - Young Americans
Scott Joplin - Piano Rags

I'll definitely be checking that place out again.

11:32am: DS Suggestions
I'm throwing ideas around for a type of "Big DS Competition Thingy" for an upcoming convention. Could people suggest to me DS games that fit the following criteria:

1) Has 2 player Wireless play with one game card
2) Is good for quick, sub-5-min, one-on-one challenges
3) Easy to pick up and play for the first time, no steep learning curves

So far all I can think of is:

Mario Kart
Bomberman

More suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

10:41am: New Genres in 2008: Stoner Metal
Well, this one was certainly an interesting experience. I've generally avoided most types of metal, generally because the shouty/screamy vocals, ridiculous lyrics, obsession with histrionic guitar virtuosity and unrelenting chugga chugga chugga of it all was a bit much for me. However, I've always been curious about stoner metal (and the somewhat related genres drone and doom metal - there's a lot of subgenres of metal, you see). "What's that you say? A sub-genre of metal revolving around dense, murky, slow-paced guitar with ludicrous amounts of bass? That sounds FUN!"

As it turns out, it was fun. Quite a bit of fun, in fact. Stoner Metal is still awfully silly in places, but for once it's a type of silliness I can enjoy. Here's the albums I decided to check out:

Boris: Boris at Last - Feedbacker (2003) - Feedbacker is, essentially, one track that goes for 43 minutes, which can be roughly divided into five sections (and, indeed, some re-releases of the album have divided it into five tracks). There's a lot of bass, blankets of distortion, some fantastically edgy electric guitar and an unmissable feeling of gravitas (particularly during the first half). As the track moves into its second half, things gradually start to sound more sinister, more brutal, more noisy, and considerably more intense. The whole thing is perhaps a little bit samey, but there's definitely good stuff happening here, and the track's best moments can be quite mesmerising. I've only listened to it a couple of times - I suspect that as I become more familiar with the song there's a fair chance my appreciation of it will grow considerably.

Electric Wizard: Dopethrone (2000) - Probably more than any other, Dopethrone was the stoner metal album I was really looking forward to hearing. I'd heard plenty of good things about it, and about how Electric Wizard are the kings of all things stoner metal. It certainly didn't disappoint. With the tuning way down and the volume way up, this is an album so bassy - so obscenely bassy - that it feels like you're wading through miles of thick sludge only to be bludgeoned to death with an electric guitar. Only, you know, in a good way. There's noisy, heavily filtered vocals somewhere in there, but underneath all the layers of bassy muck they sometimes sound more like someone calling to you from the next room. It's all really dirgy, and just amazingly good fun. I really like this album.

The Goslings: Grandeur of Hair (2006) - This was a really tough one. There is so much distortion, feedback and layer-upon-layer of incredibly loud guitar on this album that listening to it on headphones was actually physically painful. I haven't had a chance to listen to it on speakers, yet, so I've had to make do with listening on headphones with the volume turned down really low. It was a bit of a shame that I couldn't give it a proper listen just yet, because I could tell that the music here was quite meticulously arranged. The distortion and noise was actually quite melodic, in a dense, long-form sort of way, and I could tell that there was going to be plenty of beauty to be found within (similar, say, to the way in which the noise effects on Loveless or October Language are beautiful). I'm looking forward to delving further into it under circumstances that won't deafen me :P

Kyuss: Welcome to Sky Valley (1994) - Kyuss are the band that, upon disbanding and undertaking some slight lineup changes, went on to become Queens of the Stone Age. Welcome to Sky Valley is supposedly their masterwork, and it's received oodles of critical acclaim. It's probably closer to stoner-hard-rock than stoner-metal, but that wonderful, bassy, downtuned feeling is still there in full effect, and the results are really great. The album is made up of three long tracks, and there's big, chunky riffs-aplenty to be found on them, along with frontman John Garcia's bluesy, growled vocals. This is cool, and probably a not-too-intimidating starting point for anyone who's enticed by this whole "oh my God there's so much bass" thing that seems to be the genre's biggest appeal.

Om: Conference of the Birds (2006) - Other than the absolutely perfect band name (they're stoner-metal and they're called "Om". Ommmmmmmmmmmmmmm. C'mon!), this was probably the week's only real disappointment. It's a decent album, but it's all a bit meh and samey and "Oh, you worship Black Sabbath do you? That's nice. PLAY SOMETHING INTERESTING." Definitely the weakest of the bunch.

I'm really happy with how stoner-metal week went. More than any other genre so far, this was one where I really had no idea what to expect, or if there was even a reasonable chance I'd like any of the stuff I decided to check out. I ended up hearing two great albums, two good albums and one average one - not a bad result at all.

11:35am: Ooh look, another amazingly good album
I've spent a sizable chunk of the last three days listening to A Tábua de Esmeralda by Brazil's king of samba, Jorge Ben. Some of you may recal that I listened to his debut, the fantastic Samba Esquema Novo, during my "samba week". This album came out 11 years later, in 1974, and is a modernised, samba-rock album, with a lot of bossa-nova touches running through it as well. It's also Ben's most highly acclaimed work.

It's an incredibly joyous album. I don't mean anything to do with the lyrical content (after all, I can't understand a word the man says), but the combination of gorgeous, memorable acoustic guitar lines, majestic string backing, exuberant backing vocals and Ben's irresistibly sentimental delivery. It all spells out "JOY" in huge, colourful letters.

Seriously, every single person reading this should buy/download the album. It's absolutely wonderful. I know most of you won't even bother checking it out, but if one or two of you give it a shot, that'd be awesome.

At the very least, check out the song "Minha Teimosia, uma Arma Prá Te Conquistar". Very few songs make me feel as happy as this one does - it's so bright and beautiful. Seriously, if everyone in the world listened to that song once a day there'd be no war.

3:49pm: New Genres in 2008: Blues
Blues "week" was interrupted by the whole me-getting-married thing, so it ended up being very spread out, and I didn't even manage to listen to that many albums. I'm definitely planning on listening to plenty more blues recordings (they're on my ever-growing "to-hear" list!), but in the meantime I figured it was worth moving forward into a new genre. So here's the four blues recordings I actually got around to checking out...

Skip James: The Complete Early Recordings of Skip James, 1930 (Compilation, released 1994) - Skip James is one of the most famous delta-blues singers of all time. Many of you might have even heard some of his tracks without even realising it. For example, his song "Devil Got My Woman" (which opens this collection) featured prominently in the film Ghost World. In all likelihood, the sound of this music is exactly the sort of stuff you'll think of when you think of delta-blues - crackly old recordings; haunting vocals; lyrical themes of hardship, religion and, of course, women; and finely plucked acoustic guitar. This collection is brutally lo-fi in its recording quality, and yet I still managed to enjoy it immensely.

Robert Johnson: Delta-Blues Legend, Charly Blues Masterworks Series (Compilation, released 1999) - Robert Johnson is even more renowned that Skip James. Most of you probably know this already, but that famous "guy sells his soul to the devil in exchange for guitar playing ability" legend? Based on Johnson. Once again, recording quality is crackly and poor. And once again, the exquisite guitar playing and ghostly, provocative vocals render this "drawback" almost completely unimportant. If anything, it'd probably sound strange if the recording didn't sound so "fragile". Also, I bought this on CD for $8, which was neat.

Buddy Guy and Junior Wells: Play the Blues (1972) - Here I moved multiple decades ahead of the heyday of the delta-blues movement, into the earlier days of electric blues. Buddy Guy is an insanely talented guitarist, although I found his playing on this a little pedestrian - it was cool, but never exactly blew me away. There's also some nice touches of wailing harmonica thrown in, and rounded out with some nice vocals, but overall this was merely "solid" for me.

Muddy Waters: Hard Again (1977) - Muddy Waters is undoubtedly one of the most important figures in the history of blues. A driving force in the delta-blues movement, Waters also was pretty much the key figure in the Chicago blues movement of the late 40s and 50s. For a number of years during the 60s and 70s (coinciding with the rise of rock music) Waters experienced a lengthy period of minimal success and relative irrelevance to the greater music scene, however, in 1977 he recorded Hard Again, an album of punchy, raw, powerful, electric blues, recorded with an ensemble of players in a loose, playful recording session. The results are pretty amazing stuff, and this album seriously rocks in a very big, very fun way.

Also, you know that "do doooooo do do" riff? Yeah, you know the one. It got used in "Bad to the Bone". Muddy pretty much invented that riff. That's pretty fucking cool.

So, that's Blues Week. I've actually already finished Stoner/Drone Metal Week, and have moved onto Bossa Nova Week. You can expect a summary on Stoner/Drone Metal in the next few days.

7:33pm: Southland Tales
Last night I watched Southland Tales, Richard Kelly's followup to Donnie Darko. I'm not going to post a detailed review, because I think this is one of those films that's virtually impossible to summarise in any comprehensive way. The short, simple version is that it's a very surreal tale primarily revolving around three characters (although there's a very large supporting cast) stranded and confused within a dystopian near future of paranoid over-policing, reduced civil liberties and a Patriot Act gone mad, spurred on by a fictional second terrorist attack on America in 2005. There's a whole stack of Science Fiction elements to the film as well, but those would probably count as spoilers.

The film isn't impossible to follow, but there's a LOT going on, and there were definitely aspects of the film that only became clear after reading some online synopses and rewatching a few scenes. That being said, I absolutely LOVED it. I've always found a coherent, easy to follow plot to be a secondary concern to a movie that's compelling and provocative, and I was completely absorbed in Southland Tales. I found it very stirring and very thought-provoking.

I got the impression that Kelly devised an extremely detailed, phenomenal scenario around which the film is based, but then presented the movie as though we, as the viewer, were free to follow the characters around and see what they see, but were never treated to the luxury of knowing anymore than they do. It struck me as a very risky move, and according to some of the stuff I've read online, this movie confused enough people to receive some extremely negative reviews (eg. the original cut, which was shown at Cannes, received the lowest average daily score in the history of the festival - 1.1/5). It confused me too - there's still things that happened in the film which I can't possibly explain - but that didn't reduce my enjoyment of this highly original, unrelentingly creative film. In fact, it only increased my desire to watch it again and again - to see what little pieces of the puzzle I could pick up which I might have missed the first time. I'll definitely be buying the DVD.

The cast was also quite incredible. The film starred an impressive who's who of the types of cult, oft-typecast stars that make you go "Hey, it's ...!" over and over again. Dwayne Johnson (The Rock), Sean William Scott (aka Stiffler from American Pie), Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy), Justin Timberlake, Wallace Shawn (the "inconceivable!" guy from Princess Bride), Zelda Rubinstein (the old lady from Poltergeist), Bai Ling (the evil stereotyped Asian dominatrix type chick from The Crow), Kevin Smith, Jon Lovitz, Christopher Lambert, Lou Taylor Pucci (who's quite an awesome young up-and-coming indie actor), Miranda Richardson, Holmes Osborne (the Dad from Donnie Darko), Will Sasso (of Mad TV), Mandy Moore, etc, etc. And these weren't "stick out like sore thumb" cameos - these people sunk into their characters, and never once looked like goofy, self-conscious cases of intentional casting against type. Dwayne Johnson, Sean William Scott and Lou Taylor Pucci in particular were downright brilliant. Even Justin Timberlake was great.

So, there's not much more I can think of saying for the time being. Southland Tales was a spectacular mindfuck, but more than that, it was an engrossing, extremely memorable film that's genuinely unlike anything I've seen before (except, I suppose, for it's similarities to Donnie Darko - there are ways in which it seems like that film's spiritual successor).

If you've seen it I'd love to hear your thoughts. If you haven't I strongly encourage you to check it out.

EDIT: I've just read that the film is a modern day interpretation of the apocalypse, as foretold in the Book of Revelations. That's pretty cool - perhaps I should read the BoR (which I think I last read about 15 years ago, although I'm not certain) and then rewatch the movie?

11:43am: Listening to The Boredoms' Vision Creation Newsun on headphones before midday feels like someone added a generous dose of brainmeltium to my cereal.

What a fantastic album...

2:41pm: Random super-short music post
Despite the fact that I've heard the song dozens of times before, I've recently found myself hopelessly addicted to Bob Dylan's "Lay, Lady, Lay".

11:34am: Mind Blown x 2
Over the last couple of days, I've been listening to an assortment of albums from my "to hear" list. Two of these albums in particular have completely melted my brain with their brilliance. I'd like to tell you a little bit about them.

( Read more... )

10:47am: Getting a new computer
Tina and I will be picking up our shiny new PC from Netplus tomorrow. Given that my current PC was bought second-hand about 3-4 years ago, I'm really looking forward to having a system that, you know, isn't complete crap.

It's pretty funny, actually. There's some changes between the current setup and the new one that are so huge it's kind of silly - going from 256MB RAM to 2GB, 15" monitor to a 22" widescreen LCD, 80GB HDD to 500GB, etc. I'm even getting excited over the prospect of having more than two USB ports.

Yes sir, it's going to be an exciting new era of modern technology in the tommmo household.

1:53pm: Recent CD Purchases
I picked up some awesome stuff recently, and thought I'd share...

From JB Hifi, I finally got around to buying Serge Gainsbourg's Histoire de Melody Nelson. It's been almost 2 years now since I first heard that album, and it's definitely become one of my biggest favourites, so it's nice to finally have my own copy. I also picked up Public Enemy's Fear of a Black Planet. Haven't listened to that one yet, but based on how much I liked It Takes a Nation of Millions..., I suspect I'll really enjoy it.

They also had a bargain table full of CDs priced at 2 for $5. Usually these tend to be filled with random junk that's of no interest, but this time I managed to find four very cool titles - The Cure's Galore, Juana Molina's Tres Cosas, The Beta Band's Hot Shots II and Paavoharju's Yhä Hämärää. The Cure one is just a basic collection of late-80s-to-late-90s singles, which is pretty neat, but the other three are all excellent. Not bad for $10!

I also picked up a few CDs from Dirt Cheap - David Bowie's Diamond Dogs and Young Americans, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Fever to Tell, Brian Eno's Another Green World, Can's Tago Mago, The Stooges' Fun House: Special Edition and Leonard Cohen's Songs From a Room. Tago Mago in particular is really blowing my mind - I'd heard a little bit of Can before, but now I'm really keen to pick up some of their other albums, particularly Ege Bamyasi and Future Days.

On another music-related note, I've decided to tone down my new release listening this year, to focus primarily on checking out the older stuff of interest, as well as continuing with my "New Genres" project (returning soon!). I'll still listen to new releases by my favourite artists, or anything else that seems especially interesting, but I'm not going to do my usual "play the critic and listen to absolutely everything" bit. I think that, in the long run, I'll end up hearing more good music this way anyway.

2:28pm: Personality thingy

My Personality

Neuroticism	18
Extraversion	75
Openness to Experience	80
Agreeableness	80
Conscientiousness	59

You rarely get angry and it takes a lot to make you angry, however high levels of stress can lead to you feeling panic or confusion, but usually you cope with day to day pressures. You lead a moderately paced life. You like some energetic activities, but also like to relax and take it easy. Familiar routines are good, but sometimes you like to spice up your life with a bit of adventure or activity. You dislike confrontations and are perfectly willing to compromise or to deny your own needs in order to get along with others, however you are willing to take credit for good things that you do but you don't often talk yourself up much. You are well-organized and like to live according to routines and schedules. Often you will keep lists and make plans.

Take a Personality Test now or view the full Personality Report. The best Buying Pet Gifts.

3:24pm: Spendy
We bought a big wall-unit-with-shelves-&-cabinet thingy from IKEA. It's really nice finally having some more storage space to put all our stuff. To give you an idea how desperately we needed this, we had more stuff than storage space even before our engagement, if you add all the engagement + wedding gifts to that, it was really starting to get quite ridiculous.

We also bought a new washing machine, as the old one had pretty much died. No more trips to the laundromat for us!

I could get used to this whole "having money" thing.

12:26pm: Weddingy goodness
After seeing Davyd's wedding post, which he managed to put up only hours after his reception had ended, I'm feeling rather slack for not having yet done the same with regards to my own wedding. Tina and I got back from our honeymoon on Friday, and things have finally slowed down enough that I've got some time to write this post.

As far as I was concerned, the day went along with just enough troubles to keep it interesting, but not so many to keep it from being an absolutely perfect day. The weather was beautiful, the photos seem to have turned out well (coming soon!), Tina looked amazingly beautiful, our friends and family were all lovely, the speeches were good, the food and drink was nice, dancing was fun, etc etc. And, of course, I got to marry Tina! It all added up to exactly the wedding I'd hoped for.

Saturday night was spent at The Duxton Hotel in the city, which was followed by the most ridiculously huge breakfast buffet I've ever seen. Sunday afternoon was set aside for present opening, which was ... just </i>awesome</i>. Man, I love presents. They're just mint. We were quite blown away by everyone's generosity - you'll all be getting thankyou cards in the mail as soon as we get around to writing them ;)

Monday morning we raced down to buy a digital camera before heading off on our honeymoon (would've been a shame if we'd not been able to take photos, after all). We now own a Canon Ixus 75, and it's a very spiffy little camera. I took about a hundred or so photos at Steph and Davyd's wedding, so I should probably start a flickr account or something so I can start posting some images.

The honeymoon was just wonderful. We spent five days in Busselton, staying in a luxury appartment at the Abbey Beach Resort. We had a nice big living space with a spa and a kitchen and two balconies and lots of other nifty stuff. The complex had three pools (we only bothered with the heated one), and opened out onto the beach at the back. We spent lots of time shopping and eating and watching movies, which was all very relaxing. We seem to have gone a bit crazy with the shopping bit - for the first time ever, Tina and I are a two-income unit without a huge thing on the horizon that involves saving all our spare money. We've been a bit spendy. It's fun!

A definite highlight of the time in Busselton was our winery tour. We booked a chauffuered tour, which involved spending four hours being driven around in a Mercedes Benz to wineries of our choice. We had tastings, took lots of photos, had a delicious lunch at Driftwood Estate, had some very pleasant conversation with out guide/chauffuer and ended up buying about a dozen bottles of wine from the six or seven wineries we visited. It was a fantastic day out - I highly recommend it :)

Friday we left quite early, and were back in Perth in the early afternoon to be greeted by our somewhat displeased cat (she hates it when we're away). The there was Steph and Davyd's (really lovely) wedding, and that pretty much brings us up to now! Gah, I have to go to work tomorrow :P

Anyway, another big thankyou to everyone who came along and made our wedding such a wonderful experience. You're all most awesometacular indeed.

3:26pm: Wedding ceremony
As some of you may be aware, Tina and I are getting married on Saturday. Due to the fact that the ceremony and reception take place at the same venue, with one immediately following the other, we weren't sure whether we'd allow people to just come to the ceremony. We thought it might be a bit of an awkward moment to say "Now everyone can go inside for the reception. Except you."

However, since a number of people have asked me if they're allowed to attend, we've decided to go for it. So, if you haven't been invited to the wedding, but you'd like to come along on Saturday afternoon and watch the ceremony, please send me an email - tommo at ucc dot asn dot au - and I'll give you the necessary details.

1:32pm: Second chance round
Okay, here's the unguessed ones again, this time with the year of release...

1. To the extent that I wear skirts and cheap nylon slips ... 1988

3. They're gonna send us to prison for jerks ... 2007

6. The cash machine is blue and green ... 2002

9. I wanna hypnotise you baby on the telephone ... 2003

12. Down in the park and the last of the light ... 2007

13. Million ribbons and floating stars, the night sky fades ... 1996

15. Well you were standing in the door, well I wondered what you were waiting for ... 1995

17. When Marylin Monroe woke up in heaven ... 1992

18. Little hands clapping, children are laughing ... 1969

19. People take pictures of the summer, just in case someone thought they had missed it ... 1968

20. Take a look at these hands, take a look at these hands ... 1980

There's a few there that are from songs I'm certain people on my flist would know. Especially 1, 9 and 20, but a few more besides.