The TV show runs every night at 11pm for one hour. Not national. Maybe the top paying song plays nationally?
Singers/bands pay to appear, that is the only criteria. Obviously efforts to hijack the show for other purposes are not allowed.
The bid includes filming if needed.
It is purely who pays the most gets seen first
Read MoreA Melbourne rapper I have been listening to lately is Sapphire Unique. I think the genre is called Trap.
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Might do one of those things to make it seems more mysterious or ethnic
Remembrance nó Semblance
(I just searched for o with a thing on the top, bless you Google…)
That is the album title. Locked in.
I just need some tunes and all is good.
Everyone should make an album, given that a blind monk can (with technology, these days)
Just cause.
Read MorePop Will Eat Itself are playing in Melbourne next year. They were one of my favourite bands back in the day, and according to my journals we almost crossed paths twice:
Oct 15 1990, I had planned to see PWEI but I chose to hang out with a young German lass called Nina instead.
June 1992, Glastonbury Festival
No time to relax. But Jen and I did manage to hitch into Glastonbury town, for cash and groceries, a nice break. And coming back, we were driven by the US gig organisers for PWEI, who were present, but not allowed to play. Dude played me some of their new album, so that was cool. Found the payphones, and phoned in sick to the Castle, certain that they could hear the loud music and crowds background. Maybe they’ll just think it’s the radio in a noisy hostel. Who cares.
Been listening to them again for the first time in decades and am quite enjoying it. The themes are just as relevant today.
Just not sure if I want to watch 55 year old men pogoing on stage… I can replicate that at home if I want 🙂
And I just realised that the new singer is from Gaye Bykers on Acid, the first band I ever saw outside of NZ, supporting Swans in Los Angeles, 1988.
Read MoreYep, it doesn’t make sense. Which is why it works 🙂
Read MoreI am so looking forward to throwing myself into things I expect to love, and things that are perhaps outside of my comfort zone. I won’t be bored during my 3 days, that is certain
Everything revolves around Nobody’s only Australian gig.
Each night the winter feast is an obvious destination, where I can partake in some roast Highland Cow, a NZ hangi, fish nailed to planks and cooked over hot coals, rare Tasmanian gin, pork + mushroom and ginger wontons, Ethiopian spicy chicken, bulgogi wraps, tonkatsu with aged and koji-cured pork – you get the picture.
Dark Park – art, music, drink – free entry
Laurie Anderson virtual reality $10 / Lou Reed feedback $free
Soda Jerk movie $free / Liminals sci-fi pseudo-documentary $free
Rapture – Sermon, ceremony or concert? A camera tracks a crowd lost in silent worship… (no idea what this is, but $free)
Mona art gallery, of course, must do / Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery
Invisible House – A frenzied celebration of arcane knowledge, magic, science, and the occult, carried out by maverick filmmakers, visionary photographers, installation artists, automatic painters and committed ritualists.
French and Mortershead $29 but sounds alluring – Take a boat ride up the icy river, and listen to the story of your body’s afterlife and process of decay in water—dissolving and disintegrating, as it is borne through a deepening estuary and out to the sea.
Panopticon II – $free – You are the watcher; they, the watched. On the hour, things begin to change…
The Pink Palace – $free, 4 artists / Dark [Other] Times – $free, 15 artists / The Return / Island Shrine / Wildlife – imagined creatures
Shame I am flying in too late for the nude swim… 1000+ people last year…
Please note: your face will not be shown without your permission, but your ass might be.*
Dark Mofo reserves the right to refuse participation if an individual is under the influence of drugs or alcohol, or is hungover (particularly if carrying a cheeseburger).*
Somehow I’ll fit in the 2nd All Blacks v France test match!
Night Mass from 10pm Saturday, sounds like an all night immersive ramble, dodging those on substances, so that is locked in
Chrysta Bell on Sunday? I’ll listen to her at work a bit and then decide
Also Sunday, The Burning – Join the massive procession snaking its way around the waterfront to the ceremonial fires of Dark Park, where our ogoh-ogoh—and our fears with it—shall be commended to the flames.
Island Shrine – a Tasmanian Aboriginal warrior woman and tyrelore (island wife) who fought white colonists in our island’s genocidal Black War.
Read MoreOne of my maxims in life is that if I really hate something, there’s a good chance I really like it, deep down. This ties in with my belief that being a hypocrite is human nature, and not something to be judged by (I’m talking your life actions, not semantics and debates).
Example: in my extended years of backpacking, I came across a curious subset in the UK that went on cathedral tours. They had a set list of 10, 15, 20 cathedrals and they saw every one and that was their journey. Each to their own but they made other backpackers look at the their photos. Not cool, not interesting, and I suffered and hated it quite a few times through politeness. But wait! In later years, knowing what I do about the non-Christian history of such places, they do interest me quite a bit. But I would still hate that display of photos demonstrating the grandeur, and no pagan insights.
But here’s the thing. Having an odd purpose takes you away from the most touristed paths and opens up so many more possibilities. The less common your purpose, the more likely you will end up in scenarios that other tourists never have. You get a unique experience, and you see the real sides of the country you are visiting.
I love looking an extreme examples to find a truth. What if I decided to visit the owners of the 10 fattest hamsters in Bulgaria? You can guarantee I would have a unique and very real insight into that country.
Which brings me to today. When David Bowie dies, I listened to every album he made in chronological order. Then when Prince died, I did the same. Now, as I am looking through old Uncut magazines before I throw them out, I have come across their top 70 albums of the year 2000. With the aid of Spotify, I will listen to each one, counting down from 70 to 1.
(Obviously I will cut short any that don’t appeal to me…)
I expect this odd purpose will find me things otherwise unobtainable.
1. Lambchop – Nixon – SAVED – worth some more listens
2. Primal Scream – Xtrmntr – SAVED – worth some more listens
3. Radiohead – Kid A – dreary
4. Badly Drawn Boy – The Hour Of Bewilderbeast – Had the CD, is tired these days
5. Eminem – The Marshall Mathers LP – SAVED – worth some more listens
6. Emmylou Harris – Red Dirt Girl – HAVE CD – LOVE IT
7. Outkast – Stankonia – HAVE CD – not a big fan, aside from the hits
8. Ryan Adams – Heartbreaker – ALREADY SAVED AND F’KIN AWESOME
9. Kid 606 – Down With The Scene – NOT FOR ME
10. Birth – Gotton Bold – NOT FOR ME
11. Steely Dan – Two Against Nature – NOT FOR ME
12. The Magnetic Fields – 69 Love Songs- SAVED – worth some more listens
13. The Kingsbury Manx – The Kingsbury Manx – NOT ON SPOTIFY
14. Leila – Courtesy Of Choice – NOT FOR ME
15. Godspeed You Black Emperor! – Lift Yr Skinny Fists Like Antennas To The Sky – NOT FOR ME
16. Warren Zevon – Life’ll Kill Ya – NOT FOR ME
17. Phoenix – United – NOT FOR ME
18. Calexico – Hot Rail – SAVED – worth some more listens
19. The Webb Brothers – Maroon – NEATLY MOST
20. Lewis Taylor – Lewis II – NOT FOR ME
21. Lou Reed – Ecstacy – NOT FOR ME
22. Amon Tobin – Supermodified – NOT ON SPOTIFY
23. Smog – Dongs Of Sevotion –ALREADY SAVED AND F’KIN AWESOME
24. Doves – Lost Souls – NOT FOR ME
25. The Go-Betweens – The Friends Of Rachel Worth – NOT FOR ME
26. Gonzales – The Entertainist- NOT ON SPOTIFY
27. Willard Grant Conspiracy – Everything’s Fine – NOT ON SPOTIFY
28. Kelis – Kaleiderscope – NOT FOR ME
29. Deltron 3030 – Deltron 3030 – NOT FOR ME
30. The For Carnation – The For Carnation – NOT FOR ME
31. Broadcast – The Noise Made By People – SAVED
32. Knife In The Water – Plays One Around The Other – NOT ON SPOTIFY
33. Goldfrapp – Felt Mountain – ALREADY SAVED AND F’KIN AWESOME
34. The Handsome Family – In The Air – ALREADY SAVED
35. Eels – Daisies Of The Galaxy – SAVED
36. Elliott Smith – Figure 8 – SAVED
37. Marah – Kids In Philly – SAVED
38. Patti Smith – Gung Ho – NOT FOR ME
39. Yo La Tengo – And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out – NOT FOR ME
40. Jeff Buckley – Mystery White Boy- NOT FOR ME
41. Sonic Youth – Nyc Ghosts & Flowers – NOT FOR ME
42. Dr Dre – 2001 – NOT FOR ME
43. Joe Pernice – Big Tobacco – ALREADY SAVED
44. Add N To X – Add Insult To Injury – NOT QUITE FOR ME
45. The Mighty Wah! – Songs Of Strength And Heartache – NOT ON SPOTIFY
46. Chris Morris – Blue Jam – NOT ON SPOTIFY
47. The Twilight Singers – Twilight As Played By The Twilight Singers – NOT FOR ME
48. St Ettienne – Sound Of Water – NOT ON SPOTIFY
49. Black Box Recorder – The Facts Of Life – MAYBE
50. XTC – Wasp Star: Apple Venus Vol. 2- NOT ON SPOTIFY
51. Apples In Stereo – The Discovery Of The World Inside The Moone – SAVED (But track #1 is probably all that is good)
52. Clinic – Internal Wrangler – NOT FOR ME
53. The Shazam – Goodspeed The Shazam – NOT ON SPOTIFY
54. …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead – Madonna – NOT ON SPOTIFY (but a big fan)
55. Go-Kart Mozart – Instant Wigwam And Igloo Mixture – ALREADY SAVED
56. Asian Dub Foundation – Community Music – NOT ON SPOTIFY
57. Elastica – The Menace – SAVED
58. Romanthony – R Hide In Plain Site- NOT ON SPOTIFY
59. June And The Exit Wounds – A Little More Heaven Hamilton, Please – NOT ON SPOTIFY
60. Max Tundra – Some Best Friend You Turned Out To Be – NOT FOR ME
61. Brave Captain – Go With Yourself – NOT ON SPOTIFY
62. Mandalay – Instinct – MAYBE
63. Fatboy Slim – Halfway Between The Gutter And The Stars – BEEN THERE DONE THAT
64. The Russian Futurists – The Method Of Modern Love – NOT FOR ME
65. The Wu-Tang Clan – The W – NOT FOR ME
66. Giant Sand – Chore Of Enchantment – SAVED and LOVING
67. David Holms – Bow Down At The Exit Sign – NOT ON SPOTIFY
68. The Hight Llamas – Buzzle Bee – NOT ON SPOTIFY
69. Bent – Programmed To Love – SAVED
70. PJ Harvey – Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea – SAVED
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Just crossed my mind to tally up the books etc that I am part way through*. Until 2 years ago I allocated myself one novel per year, and the rest science non-fiction. Then came 3 hours a day on the train, so I’m getting through a fair bit.
The Knife of Never Letting Go – Patrick Ness. Finished today, in plenty of time for this month’s The Last Bookclub on Earth. Soon to be a hit movie series.
Feed – Mira Grant. Will easily finish in time for the next Last Bookclub on Earth meetup. Bloggers versus zombies.
More Notes of a Dirty Old Man – Charles Bukowski. I turn to Hank when I need a pick me up, and to his poetry when I need even more.
The Book Your Mad Ancestor Wrote. Short stories by K.J. Bishop, the Aussie genius who wrote The Etched City
Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos – H.P Lovecraft and others. Another short story collection to slowly work my way through
The Colour of Magic / The Light Fantastic – Terry Pratchett. Something light-hearted for when I need a break from dystopian fiction, dark fantasy and gothic horror.
Good (US magazine). “environmental issues, education, urban planning, design, politics, culture, technology, and health”
Mojo (magazine). I have kept all of my old music magazines in case one day I get so rich I can order any CD I want based on a 100 word review. Well that time has come, a.k.a Spotify.
MIT Technology Review (magazine). Serious but readable.
Regulation (magazine). About regulatory policy in the USA, but ultimately about libertarianism. A guilty pleasure.
The Long Trip: A Prehistory of Psychedelia – Paul Devereux. Scholarly look at everyday tripping at the start of civilisation. Causality?
Dig Deeper: Seasonal sustainable Australian gardening. Hefty tome full of ideas as I slowly create a paradise at home.
Aside from train reading, these are also read over breakfast or lunch, or waiting at the pub at the agreed time while others dawdle. If I’m awake enough to read in bed, I should be working instead.
*part way through and readily findable. There are many, many more buried away somewhere, which means I clearly lost interest. Although it is rare for me to not finish a novel, the same as I can’t walk out of a stage play.
CebtaAnd yeah, TV shows these days… Designated Survivor, Black Mirror, and Central
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Just back from the gig, and I’m listening to I Wanna Be Your Lover. If Prince had played that tonight, verbatim, it would have been legendary. I’d almost be happy with that one song, done right.
I have no problem with Prince – I’m sure he is a lovely bloke. But when you get that famous, I guess the machine controls you.
Well, kinda.
Almost every seat was $180. Some in the very back row were $99, a token gesture. And down at ground level, surrounding the symbol stage, were seats priced at $350 and $450. That’s where I was. And it was shite. And that was the consensus of everyone down there that I spoke to.
Prince’s concert was “in the round”, a concept I have no problem with. But for it to work, you need a round stage, with the band in the center, and the star working the perimeter. Prince’s show tonight had a massive directional bias, and half the audience were cheated. But at least the hard-done-by half of the audience could look down on him, even if they weren’t exactly facing him. In my expensive seat (which I would have happily swapped for a $99 seat), I mostly got to see the back of the drum kit. I saw a lot of the backing singers, they used the rear of the stage extensively. But I paid to see Prince.
There were screens to watch, but from my premium seat they were literally at a 85 degree vertical angle, and it was painful to watch them for more than a minute at a time.
Prince did visit the rear of the stage – I counted 5 times in 3 hours. And each time was less than a minute. In fact so brief were these rear-facing appearances that only once did I have time to switch my phone to camera mode and take a picture.
The music was excellent and faultless. But I didn’t enjoy it – I only remember two brief happy moments 🙁 You know when you watch the Grammys or the Oscars and they have a tribute performance, where several songs are merged together and the music is honored. Imagine that for three hours. It seemed Prince did so many medleys that I reckon only two of his biggest hits were played in their entirety, whereas we got to hear a single verse and chorus of perhaps 10. Every time one of my favorite songs started to kick in, it segued into another hit. With no visuals and only sounds to enjoy, I still couldn’t get into a groove.
I did note that he mentioned Australia a few times, but I don’t think he ever said the word Melbourne…
The encores were stupid. One occurred after a 20 minute break in which there really wasn’t much cheering. I’ve never seen such a false encore in all my days. The third encore was so long coming that I gave up and left, along with half the crowd. I wouldn’t be surprised if he played another song or two to half the audience, and even they had given up clapping long before.
Prince was very slick, but there wasn’t a single moment where (I felt) he connected with the audience. There wasn’t a single moment where he sung beautifully, or soulfully.
The crowd loved it (I say that based on the dancing and smiles). But cults get similar reactions, and that doesn’t mean they are good. There are seven fish’n’chip shops in Williamstown (where I live) and I wouldn’t eat any of them for free – even though it is my favorite meal ever. Yet they are all still in business, because most folk are too easily pleased.
The hi-hat drums… well Prince was mostly behind them, and at the same relative height. Here’s the best it got for me visuallly – and it was extremely brief.
Here’s what a reporter from The Age said about Prince’s prior gig in Sydney:
Read MoreMost shows start and end as strongly as possible and, if they have to dip, do so briefly in the middle. This one was a veritable roller-coaster: one minute you’d be feasting on the hot funk of Jam of the Year; the next you’d be scratching your head at The Song of the Heart, Prince’s goofy song from Happy Feet. Or you would be getting Delirious and partying like it was 1999 (why does he so often cram the upbeat jams into medleys?) only to find him sliding into a teasing, unfulfilling read of Little Red Corvette.
Don’t get me started on the painfully indulgent 20-minute meander through Purple Rain or the fact that he kept us waiting another 20 minutes in the dark for a final encore of Peach.
Splendid evening last Sunday at the Recital Centre, and I was fortunate to have a seat in the 2nd row of a full hall. And it was interesting to note that they only performed once in Sydney, but had three shows in Melbourne. I guess we are more dark and arty here… or perhaps the Sydney Opera House is a bigger venue 😉
Of all the artists performing, a dozen of which had come here from the UK or USA, I only really knew of Green Gartside (Scritti Politti). I had heard of Robyn Hitchcock, but not heard his music – and based on what I saw tonight was not my cup of tea. These did impress: